Knowledge, attitude and practice of family physicians regarding smoking cessation counseling in family practice centers, suez canal university, Egypt

Abstract

Introduction:Family physicians are the first point of medical contact for most patients, and they come into contact with a large number of smokers. Also, they are well suited to offer effective counseling to people, because family physicians already have some knowledge of patients and their social environments.Aims:The present study was conducted to assess family physicians’ knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking cessation counseling aiming to improve quality of smoking cessation counseling among family physicians.Materials and Methods:The study was descriptive analytic cross sectional study. It was conducted within family medicine centers. Sample was comprehensive. it included 75 family physicians. They were asked to fill previously validated anonymous questionnaire to collect data about their personal characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking cessation counseling, barriers and recommendations of physicians. Equal or above the mean scores were used as cut off point of the best scores for knowledge, attitude and practice.Statistical Analysis:SPSS version 18 was used for data entry and statistical analysis.Results:The best knowledge, attitude and practice scores among family physicians in the study sample were (45.3 %, 93.3% and 44% respectively). Age (P = 0.039) and qualification of family physicians (P = 0.04) were significant variables regarding knowledge scores while no statistically significance between personal characteristics of family physicians and their attitude or practice scores regarding smoking cessation counseling. More than half of the family physicians recommended training to improve their smoking cessation counseling.Conclusions:Favorable attitude scores of family physicians exceed passing knowledge scores or practice scores. Need for knowledge and training are stimulus to design an educational intervention to improve quality of smoking cessation counseling.

Tobacco smoking in Egypt: a scoping literature review of its epidemiology and control measures

“…In another study in the Family Medicine Practice Centers (FMC), affiliated to Suez Canal University Hospitals, Abdelsatar et al (50) examined family physicians' knowledge, attitudes, and practice of smoking cessation counseling. Practice scores of family physicians were assessed based on their sources of knowledge, receiving any formal training, and their perception of competency in smoking cessation counseling.…”

Effect of physicians’ smoking status on their knowledge, attitude, opinions and practices of smoking cessation in a University Hospital, in Egypt

“…This rate is close to that reported among the general population in Alexandria (27.2%) [15] . While it is much less than the prevalence of current smokers reported among physicians in Urban Family Medicine Centers in Alexandria (51.1%) [7], it is higher than the rate reported among family practice centers in Suez Canal (5.3%) [16] . The low rate of the last study may be explained by its small sample size.…”

“…About 85% of the physicians in our study claimed that they always or sometimes asked their patients about their smoking status. In Suez canal [16] and El-Kasr El-Aini Hospital [10] in Egypt, 60 and 70%, respectively, asked about the patients' smoking status, while 36 and 74%, respectively advised patients to stop smoking. In a British study [26] , physicians had a positive attitude toward advising patients to quit.…”

Short-term impact of the EuroPean Accredited Curriculum on Tobacco Treatment Training (EPACTT) program

“…Several studies have indicated that negative attitudes and a lack in both knowledge and confidence in tobacco treatment are common among health care professionals and are barriers to tobacco treatment delivery 5,25,[28][29][30][31][32] . In the present study the majority of health care professionals had not previously received training in tobacco treatment, reported low baseline knowledge in several areas assessed, had poor attitudes, and low self-efficacy related to smoking cessation counseling and in prescribing quit-smoking medications.…”