Smoking behaviour and attitudes among Australian medical students

Abstract

Teaching about tobacco and related diseases is essential in the undergraduate medical course in order for students to gain knowledge about smoking and how to intervene with patients who smoke. The objective of the study was to assess students' smoking-related behaviour, knowledge and attitudes towards tobacco, and perceptions of their future role as doctors. Data were collected from two consecutive years of year 1 and year 5 medical students at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. A total of 594 (79%) of students across the 2 years completed the survey: 90% of year 1 students, and 69% of year 5 students. The daily smoking rate among the total medical students was 2.9%: 11.8% in year 1 (2.3% daily, 9.5% occasional) and 13.7% in year 5 (3.3% daily, 10.4% occasional). There were significantly more male than female smokers in year 5 (P < 0.05). The overall smoking rates for males in years 1 and 5 were 12.4% and 19.3%, and the smoking rates for females were 11.2% and 8%. Knowledge about the causal role of tobacco in the development of specific diseases improved significantly from year 1 to year 5 (P < 0.001). Nevertheless, in year 5 there remained a lack of knowledge about the relationship of smoking and some diseases. Fifty-seven per cent of students thought that their current knowledge was sufficient to counsel smokers, with year 5 students (89%) being far more positive than year 1 students (34%) (P < 0.001). Teaching medical students about smoking-related diseases and a patient-centred smoking cessation intervention results in an increase in knowledge, as well as positive perceptions about their future role in intervening with smokers.

Tobacco use prevalence, knowledge and attitudes, and tobacco cessation training among medical students: results of a pilot study of Global Health Professions Students Survey (GHPSS) in Italy

“…In addition, it is interesting to report that at an Australian University, after the introduction of a tobaccoknowledge curriculum, the prevalence of smoking among medical students decreased (Richmond and Kehoe 1997).…”

Prevalencia de tabaquismo y actitud de cambio frente al hábito tabáquico en universitarios chilenos: Importancia de la formación médica

“…Lo anterior pone de manifiesto que la Facultad de Medicina no estaría ejerciendo una influencia positiva en disminuir la prevalencia del tabaquismo, sino más bien estaría determinando que los estudiantes de Medicina de cursos avanzados fumen más que aquellos de cursos iniciales. Estos hallazgos resultan compatibles con lo descrito en la literatura internacional [8][9][10][11] . Para entender el porqué de estos hallazgos, se necesitarán nuevos estudios que permitan conocer las posibles causas (ejemplo: presencia de docentes fumadores, de un ambiente permisivo, etc.…”

“…Este concepto no se transmite en la educación que la Facultad de Medicina aporta a los futuros médicos, sobre todo si éstos son fumadores. Coincidimos con otros autores [8][9][10][11] en señalar que la formación médica actual no logra disminuir el porcentaje de fumadores, sino más bien favorece que las tasas de tabaquismo en los estudiantes de Medicina se incrementen a medida que éstos progresan en sus años de carrera. Los conocimientos acerca de los efectos perjudiciales del tabaco tienen escaso impacto sobre la conducta de los estudiantes.…”

“…De manera sorprendente, este aumento de conocimiento no se asocia a menores tasas de tabaquismo, ya que los estudiantes de Medicina de cursos avanzados generalmente fuman más que aquellos de cursos iniciales [8][9][10][11] . El objetivo del presente estudio es determinar la prevalencia de tabaquismo y la actitud de cambio frente al hábito tabáquico en estudiantes de Medicina e Ingeniería, de primer y cuarto año de la Universidad de Chile.…”

Cigarette smoking among medical students in China and modifiable risk factors for smoking prevention

“…Smoking rates among medical students in many western countries are relatively low compared to the high rates among the general population (Ashton and Kamali, 1995;Mangus et al, 1998;Patkar et al, 2003;Richmond and Kehoe, 1997;Roche, 1997;Roche and Beauchamp, 1994;Sockrider et al, 1998). For example, the smoking rates were 2 to 3 percent among medical students in the US since the early 1990s and have remained at very low levels since then (Mangus et al, 1998;Patkar et al, 2003;Sockrider et al, 1998) while approximately 20-25 percent of the general US population smoked during the period (CDC, 2003;Mendez et al, 1998).…”