Assessment of dental faculty, staff, and students on knowledge of health effects associated with tobacco use.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined the knowledge of the health effects associated with tobacco use among dental school faculty, staff, and students.


METHODS
A 30-item survey instrument was pilot-tested to ensure content validity prior to implementation. A total of 724 surveys were distributed through campus mail.


RESULTS
A total of 344 (47.51%) survey instruments were returned. 71.8 percent of respondents reported using tobacco sometime during their life, 21.8 percent had smoked at least one cigarette a day for the past 30 days, but only 8.4 percent considered themselves to be smokers. Of the 71.8% reported using tobacco sometime during their lifetime, 49.7 percent reported being very confident about their ability to quit using tobacco, 32.6 percent reported that it would be unlikely for their tobacco use to result in negative health effects, and 31.7 percent reported that they were not worried about negative health effects associated with tobacco use.


CONCLUSIONS
This study reveals a lack of knowledge of dental school faculty, staff, and students on the negative personal health effects associated with tobacco use.
Muzyka
Brian C
BC
Division of Dentistry, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27834, USA. muzykab@ecu.edu
Cropley
Lorelei D
LD
Oertling
Karen M
KM
Andrieu
Sandra C
SC
Anderson
Peter B
PB
D005179:Faculty, Dental; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D012575:Schools, Dental; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009057:Stomatognathic Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D013335:Students, Dental; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000150:complications*