Smoking among medical staff in a Hospital: inviting to prevention through Analysis of consumer habits

Introduction and objectives: Smoking is a chronic disease that constitutes one of the main public health problems worldwide. An important element in the fight against tobacco is the attitude that health workers take to combating this disease.

For this reason, we have analyzed the pattern of tobacco consumption among doctors in our hospital and the predisposition that active smokers have to stop smoking.

Material and methods: Descriptive observational study through anonymous surveys not validated to physicians of different medical specialties. It includes socio-occupational data, smoking history and knowledge about their health status.

Results: Of the 120 doctors of the hospital who have been part of the study, 53% (64) are men and 46% (55) women, with an average age of 43.5 ± 13 years. The majority (82%) affirm having a good health status and 77% do not have cardiovascular risk factors. 68% (82) have never been smokers, 22% (26) are ex-smokers, and only 10% (12) are active smokers. Of these, half (50%) have had previous attempts to stop smoking and 75% have considered it. The average age of onset is 18 ± 3.7 years and 67% have been smoking for more than 11 years.

Among ex-smokers, half (50%) have not smoked for more than 11 years and needed between 1 to 4 attempts to achieve it. The motivation of the majority (88%) was personal decision and did not require substitution treatment or other non-pharmacological therapy (89%). Regarding to anti-tobacco advice to patients, 86% of the phisicians ask them about tobacco consumption, but only 37% perform an anti-smoking intervention, which is usually carried out through verbal information (69%).

Conclusions: The prevalence of smoking among doctors of the hospital is low (10%). The average age of onset is about 18 years and the duration of the habit exceeds 11 years. The greatest motivation for the abandonment is related to the knowledge of the impact that the habit supposes for the health condition, without specifying in the majority of cases the use of pharmacological therapies. We must intensify anti-smoking messages to our patients.