Tobacco Cessation Counseling: Attitudes and Practices among Yemeni Dental Professionals.
Tobacco use is a significant health problem in Yemen and worldwide. Dental practitioners can play a pivotal role in educating their patients on the risk of smoking and motivating them to quit. This study aimed to assess the attitudes towards and practices of tobacco cessation counseling (TCC) among Yemeni dental professionals and to evaluate whether such attitudes and practices are associated with gender, smoking status, and years since graduation. In this cross-sectional study, a self-administered questionnaire containing questions regarding the practice and attitudes towards TCC in dental clinic was used. SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis. For statistical analysis, Chi-square test was used with a significance level of P < 0.05. Of the 400 distributed questionnaires, 182 were completed and analyzed. 53.3% of the respondents were males and 46.7% were females. Around one fifth of the respondents were smokers. The majority reported that they routinely ask their patients about their tobacco habits (83.5%), and advise against tobacco use (85%). Around half of the respondents believed that tobacco cessation intervention may affect their clinical practice and their income negatively through decreasing number of attending patients and believed that provision of dental treatment is more important than TCC. The majority (92%) believe that health professionals should refrain from tobacco, and 83% agree that TCC should be included in dental school curricula. Recent graduates and non-smokers showed relatively better attitudes and practices. There is an urgent need for continuing educational programs in TCC. Also, inclusion of TCC to dental curriculum is highly required.
Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, AlFarabi Colleges, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. sadali05@hotmail.com.|Department of Oral Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Sanaa University, Sana'a, Yemen. sadali05@hotmail.com.
Sadeq Ali
SA
Al-Maweri
Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Department of Dental Ecology, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Walid A
WA
Al-Soneidar
Private Dental clinic, Sana'a, Yemen.
Amer
A
AlMaqtari
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, AlFarabi Colleges, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Abdulrahman
A
Hunaish
Private Dental clinic, Sana'a, Yemen.
Ghadah
G
Al-Sufyani
Department of Maxillofacial Surgery and Diagnostic sciences, College of Dentistry, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia.
Esam
E
Halboub
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003376:Counseling; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003815:Dentists; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D020340:Tobacco Use Cessation; D015006:Yemen
Attitude; Dentists; Practices; Tobacco cessation