title: [Attitudes of Brazilian pulmonologists toward nicotine dependence: a national survey].
abstract: Smoking is a medical condition, since there is drug dependence, and health professionals should treat it as a chronic disease. In order to understand the attitudes of Brazilian pulmonologists toward smokers, we conducted a national survey, using a questionnaire posted on the Internet, of 2,800 pulmonologists, 587 (21%) of whom completed and returned the questionnaires. We found that 3.2% of the respondents did not believe that smoking is a medical condition. Only 14.7% treated smokers, and 32.4% stated that they would refer smokers to another professional for treatment. These results suggest that Brazilian pulmonologists have insufficient knowledge of smoking cessation therapies.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil. viegasc@uol.com.br
authors.forename: Carlos Alberto de Assis
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Viegas
authors.forename: Antonio Gabriel Teles
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Valentim
authors.forename: Jaene Andrade Pacheco
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Amoras
authors.forename: Euler Junior Moreira
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Nascimento
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001938:Brazil; D002983:Clinical Competence; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015272:Pulmonary Medicine; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000628:therapy*