Association between awareness of harmful effects of smoking and smoking cessation advice provided by hospital chest physicians in Guangzhou, China: A multi-institutional cross-sectional survey

Understanding Smoking Behavior among Physicians in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background

The prevalence of smoking has increased in recent years in Saudi Arabia. Our objectives were to determine the factors affecting smoking among physicians and to assess physicians' quitting behavior.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was carried out at 3 district hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It involved physicians with different levels of experience and different specialties. They were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire adapted from validated tools. The questionnaire addressed sociodemographic data, lifestyle, and work-related factors as well as smoking cessation and relapse. SPSS statistical software was used for the statistical analysis.

Results

The study included 290 physicians, of whom 91% were Saudi and 59.7% were male. About 55.2% were younger than age of 30. Overall, 34.8% were smokers. The following factors had a significant association with smoking: a smoking family member/friend, resident occupational status, medical specialty, and frequent on-call duties increased the likelihood of smoking. One-third of the physicians (31.6%) who tried to quit smoking reported seeking information on social media, television, and/or the internet. The most common causes of relapse were social stress and withdrawal symptoms, while the least common was work-related stress.

Conclusions

Smoking was highly prevalent among physicians. The likelihood of smoking was higher in, residents, medical specialists and those with a high number of on-call duties. Moreover, this study described cessation practices in this group, which might be considered when designing and improving counseling programs for physicians who smoke.

Smoking behavior of primary care physicians and its effect on their smoking counseling practice

Context:

Smoking among the primary care physicians (PCPs) is detrimental to not only their own health but it may also affect their attitude and practice towards smoking cessation counseling.

Aims:

We aimed to assess the smoking behavior of primary care physicians and its effect on their patient smoking counseling practices.

Subjects and Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted among the primary care physicians (N = 261) working under the Ministry of Health in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia during May to June 2018. The data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire that was based on global adult tobacco survey. The participants were selected through simple random sampling.

Results:

About 16% of PCPs were found to be current smokers while about 9.6% were ex-smokers. On binomial logistic regression current smoking was observed to be independently associated with gender, specialty, and years of work experience (P < 0.01). The practice of smoking cessation advice was found to be significantly associated with physicians’ current smoking status after adjusting for other factors; PCPs who were non-smokers were 2.97 (95% CI 1.34-6.54) times more likely to always advice patients on cessation as compared to smoking colleagues.

Conclusions and Implications:

Smoking behavior of physicians was found to affect their patient smoking cessation counseling. This finding should be used in while planning and training staff for smoking cessation services in primary care settings.

Blood pressure and hypertension prevalence among oldest-old in China for 16 year: based on CLHLS

Background

There were little national data on hypertension based on the oldest-old, and lack of information on chronological changes. This study aimed to describe trends of blood pressure (BP) levels and hypertension prevalence for the past 16 years among the oldest-old in China.

Methods

All the oldest-old who had participated in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) 1998 to 2014 with information about BP levels and hypertension were included in the analysis.

Results

There was fluctuation over the past 16 years for both SBP and DBP levels. The mean SBP level decreased from 148.4 ± 24.4 mmHg in 1998 to 130.8 ± 18.7 mmHg in 2005, and then increased to 139.7 ± 22.0 mmHg in 2014. The mean DBP level decreased from 84.3 ± 13.4 mmHg in 1998 to 78.9 ± 11.7 mmHg in 2008, and then increased to 79.7 ± 11.8 mmHg in 2014. The hypertension prevalence increased from 43.1 to 56.5% for the 16 years. The prevalence of isolated systolic hypertension was lowest in 2002–2005 (14.3%), and then increased to 30.7% in 2014. Multivariate logistic regression showed that older age, lower education and economic level, without health insurance were associated with higher hypertension prevalence.

Conclusions

There was a significant increase in hypertension prevalence among the Chinese oldest-old from 1998 to 2014. Greater efforts are needed for hypertension prevention among this specific population.

Do physicians address their patients' smoking behavior? Results from a nationwide survey among physicians in Estonia

OBJECTIVES

To analyze the factors that hinder physicians addressing patients' smoking behavior in Estonia where relatively high smoking among physicians has been previously reported.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Data from a nationwide cross-sectional postal survey of professionally active physicians in Estonia and multinomial logistic regression were used to explore the factors predicting the frequency (never vs always, often vs always) of addressing patients' smoking behavior.

RESULTS

The majority of physicians had asked about the smoking behavior of their patients either always (14.2%) or often (75.7%). Odds of never asking (10.1% of physicians) were higher for dentists, current smokers, and for those reporting lack of time, habit, or skills. Higher odds for less frequent (vs always) asking were found for male physicians, medical residents, and among those reporting lack of time and habit.

CONCLUSIONS

Addressing patients' smoking behavior is associated with physicians' demographic characteristics, specialty, and smoking status. Also, lack of time, habits, and skills are common barriers that need to be tackled for more efficient smoking cessation counseling.

Smoking prevalence and attitudes towards smoking among Estonian physicians: results from cross-sectional studies in 2002 and 2014

OBJECTIVES

To explore smoking prevalence and attitudes towards smoking among Estonian physicians in 2002 and 2014.

DESIGN

Two self-administered cross-sectional postal surveys were conducted among practising physicians in Estonia.

PARTICIPANTS

Initial sample consisted of all practising physicians in Estonia. The corrected response rate was 67.8% in 2002 and 53.1% in 2014. Present study sample was restricted to physicians younger than 65 years (n=2549 in 2002, n=2339 in 2014).

METHODS

Age-standardised prevalence of smoking and prevalence of agreement with seven statements concerning attitudes towards smoking was determined. To analyse association of physicians' attitudes towards smoking with study year and smoking status, logistic regression analysis was used. Adjusted ORs of agreement with the seven statements were determined. Corresponding 95% CIs were calculated.

RESULTS

The age-standardised prevalence of current smoking among men was 26.8% in 2002 and 15.3% in 2014, among women 10.4% and 5.8%, respectively. Compared with the year 2002, in 2014, prevalence of agreement with statements declaring harmfulness of smoking was higher and prevalence of agreement with statements approving smoking was lower. Adjusted ORs showed that compared with 2002, physicians' attitudes towards smoking were less favourable in 2014, and physicians' attitudes towards smoking were associated with their smoking status.

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with 2002, the age-standardised smoking prevalence among male and female physicians was lower, and attitudes towards smoking were less approving in 2014. The smoking physicians had more approving attitudes towards smoking than their non-smoking colleagues.