title: Prevalence of smoking habits, attitudes, knowledge and beliefs among Health Professional School students: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine smoking prevalence, attitudes, knowledge and behaviours/beliefs among Health Professional School students according to the Global Health Professional Student Survey (GHPSS) approach.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was carried out in Catania University Medical Schools. The GHPSS questionnaires were self-administered. Logistic regression model was performed. The level of significance was p ≤ 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  422 students answered to the questionnaire. Prevalence of current smokers was 38.2%. 94.3% of the total sample believe that health professionals should receive specific training to quit smoking, but only 21.3% of the sample received it during the study courses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given the high prevalence of smokers among health professionals and their key role both as advisers and behavioral models, our results highlight the importance of focusing attention on smoking cessation training addressed to them.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento GF Ingrassia, Igiene e Sanità Pubblica, Università degli Studi, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Margherita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferrante
authors.forename: Rosella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saulle
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ledda
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pappalardo
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fallico
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: La Torre
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fiore
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D013334:Students; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult