Tobacco Cessation Counseling: Attitudes and Practices among Yemeni Dental Professionals

Abstract

Tobacco use is a significant health problem in Yemen and worldwide. Dental practitioners can play a pivotal role in educating their patients on the risk of smoking and motivating them to quit. This study aimed to assess the attitudes towards and practices of tobacco cessation counseling (TCC) among Yemeni dental professionals and to evaluate whether such attitudes and practices are associated with gender, smoking status, and years since graduation. In this cross-sectional study, a self-administered questionnaire containing questions regarding the practice and attitudes towards TCC in dental clinic was used. SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis. For statistical analysis, Chi-square test was used with a significance level of P < 0.05. Of the 400 distributed questionnaires, 182 were completed and analyzed. 53.3% of the respondents were males and 46.7% were females. Around one fifth of the respondents were smokers. The majority reported that they routinely ask their patients about their tobacco habits (83.5%), and advise against tobacco use (85%). Around half of the respondents believed that tobacco cessation intervention may affect their clinical practice and their income negatively through decreasing number of attending patients and believed that provision of dental treatment is more important than TCC. The majority (92%) believe that health professionals should refrain from tobacco, and 83% agree that TCC should be included in dental school curricula. Recent graduates and non-smokers showed relatively better attitudes and practices. There is an urgent need for continuing educational programs in TCC. Also, inclusion of TCC to dental curriculum is highly required.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Related to Smokeless Tobacco and Areca Nut Cessation Among Dental Surgeons in Sri Lanka

“…who are current tobacco and/ or areca nut users. This is completely different from most of the studies reported where a signi cant percentage of dental surgeons use tobacco, specially smoking [25].…”

“…We have observed that only 42.7% of the respondents had the habit of inquiring regarding tobacco usage from all of their patients routinely. This is much less than the reported numbers in the literature [25]. Giving up the SLT habit early will de nitely bene t the patient as the chances of developing adverse effects increase with the duration of SLT use.…”

“…However, there is room for further improvement as compared to literature this good practice is less often implemented by Sri Lankan dental surgeons [25]. Furthermore, 5.7% of the respondents provide tobacco cessation advice only when the patient is having a lesion due to SLT use, which is unacceptable as each and every person with SLT/AN use should receive TCC.…”

“…Attitudes regarding smokeless tobacco cessation counseling (TCC) and ways to reduce SLT use According to the responses of the questions on Likert scale, total weighted score was calculated. Pre workshop total attitudinal score: range of 9 (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25) with the mean value of 22.15 (SD 2.3) and post workshop: range of 6 (14-20) with the mean of 18.7 (SD 1.56). These total scores were converted to Z scores.…”

Tobacco cessation support among dentists: A cross-sectional survey in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

“…Smokers constituted 27% of the study sample. Recent studies reported almost the same prevalence of smoking among a sample of physicians and dentists in Iraq and Saudi Arabia 14,15 , but higher than dentists in Yemen where 20% of the study sample were smokers 16 . In the current study, a smoking dentist was more likely to be: male, age less than 40 years, and a professional experience of less than 15 years.…”