Prevalence of and Attitudes towards Smoking among Spanish Health Professionals.
BACKGROUND
The MPOWER strategy encourages suitable monitoring of the tobacco epidemic among health professionals in all countries.


OBJECTIVE
To analyse the prevalence of and attitudes towards tobacco use among Spanish health professionals.


METHODS
A study was conducted based on an online survey. The study population consisted of health professionals (primary care physicians, specialist physicians and nurses). The questionnaire used included questions about tobacco consumption, knowledge of and attitudes towards smoking. The sample size was calculated according to a database with 9,500 e-mail addresses and listings of health centres and hospitals all over Spain. Statistical analysis was done using the SPSS software programme.


RESULTS
The study group comprised a total of 612 health professionals: 322 were women (52.6%), 196 were nurses and 416 were physicians. 11.7% of health professionals were smokers (9.6% regular smokers and 2.1% occasional smokers) and 41.3% were ex-smokers. Within the group of daily smokers, differences were observed between the nurses and the physicians: 11.2 versus 8.9% (p = 0.009). Smoking was recognized as a chronic disorder by 58.2% of health professionals, and 54.6% knew that the most effective intervention to help quit is a combination of psychological and pharmacological treatment. 56% of health professionals always asked their patients about their tobacco consumption.


CONCLUSIONS
11.7% of Spanish health professionals are smokers. We found that they have low knowledge about strategies to quit smoking and that there is a low level of therapeutic intervention on smokers.
Smoking Research Programme of the Spanish Respiratory Society (SEPAR), Barcelona, Spain.
Carlos A
CA
Jiménez-Ruiz
Juan Antonio
JA
Riesco Miranda
Angela
A
Ramos Pinedo
Eva
E
de Higes Martinez
Francisca Lourdes
FL
Marquez
Luis
L
Palomo Cobos
Segismundo
S
Solano Reina
Jose Ignacio
JI
de Granda Orive
Pilar
P
de Lucas Ramos
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires