[Investigation on smoking status of medical professionals in Chengdu City and on intervention for tobacco control].
OBJECTIVE
To illuminate the current smoking status of medical professionals, understand their knowledge, attitude and practice about tobacco control, then apply a comprehensive model to intervention, and finally evaluate the effectiveness.


METHODS
932 medical professionals from 3 hospitals were surveyed with questionnaire on their smoking status, knowledge, attitude and practice about tobacco control. One of the hospitals was taken as intervention group, the others served as control.


RESULTS
The smoking rate in male was 49.7%, and in female 0.2%; male smokers were mostly surgeons and medical technicians. As to knowledge, most of medical professionals knew the relationship between lung cancer, heart disease and smoking, but less than 50% knew the relationship between childhood tympanitis, sudden infant death syndrome and passive smoking. As to attitude, 86.2% non-smokers opposed "passive smoking was harmless", but only 70.4% smokers opposed so; the difference between them was significant; 87.5% non-smokers agreed to take economic measure to punish the smokers who violate tobacco control regulations, but only 68.1% smokers agreed so. As to practice, both smokers and non-smokers rarely asked about patient's smoking status, but non-smokers were more willing to persuade their family or friends to quit smoking than smokers; the difference was statistically significant. Through the comprehensive intervention, the smoking rate for these medical professionals declined from 48.6% to 42.7%, but the difference was not significant; more medical professionals were against "passive smoking is harmless" after the intervention (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Medical professionals have a comparatively high smoking rate, they are indifferent to tobacco control. These smokers have different attitude and behaviors to tobacco control. The comprehensive tobacco control is effective for changing the medical professionals' smoking behavior and enhancing their consciousness.
Dong
Cai-Ting
CT
Department of Environmental Occupational Health, West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Lan
Ya-Jia
YJ
Yang
Qing
Q
Luo
Yan
Y
Mao
Zheng-Zhong
ZZ
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires