title: Tobacco use, exposure to secondhand smoke, and cessation counseling among health professions students: greek data from the global health professions student Survey (GHPSS).
abstract: We conducted the GHPSS (Global Health Professions Student Survey) to obtain information regarding health profession students' smoking habits and perceptions, exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) as well as level of knowledge and training on tobacco use and smoking cessation counseling. GHPSS is a survey for third-year students in the following fields: health visitors, dentistry, medicine, nursing and/or pharmacy. The highest tobacco use prevalence rate and exposure to SHS were recorded among health visitor students with 46.4% and 33.3% respectively. The majority of the respondents believed that their profession serves as a role model for their patients. Formal training on cessation counseling ranged between 10.7% for health visitor students to 22.4% for nursing students. The relatively high percentage of health profession students who currently smoke and the alarmingly high percentage of those exposed to SHS indicate lack of concerted efforts for implementation and effective enforcement of the anti-tobacco policy measures. Despite its significance, formal training on cessation counseling for students is strikingly low. These results indicate the urgent need to train health professional students on tobacco cessation counseling and educate them on the dangers of tobacco use, SHS and the positively influential role they can play to affect their patients' smoking habits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, National School of Public Health, Alexandras Av. 196, 11521, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Anastasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbouni
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Papakyriazi 22, 41222, Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hadjichristodoulou
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, National School of Public Health, Alexandras Av. 196, 11521, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Kyriakoula
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Merakou
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, National School of Public Health, Alexandras Av. 196, 11521, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Antoniadou
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, National School of Public Health, Alexandras Av. 196, 11521, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Kallirrhoe
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kourea
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, National School of Public Health, Alexandras Av. 196, 11521, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Evangelia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Miloni
authors.affiliation: Office of Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd. Atlanta, GA 30333, USA.
authors.forename: Charles W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Papakyriazi 22, 41222, Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rahiotis
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, National School of Public Health, Alexandras Av. 196, 11521, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kremastinou
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006281:Health Occupations / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D013334:Students; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; D014026:Nicotiana
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution