Abstract:
Objective To investigate smoking prevalence, attitude towards tobacco control and effect of brief intervention on smoking cessation among medical professionals in a large tertiary hospital in Beijing ten years after the initiative of smoke-free hospital and to provide evidences for intervention on smoking in medical professionals.
Methods Totally 2 141 in-service medical professionals in a tertiary hospital in Beijing were recruited with cluster sampling and surveyed with a structured questionnaire to collect relevant information in July 2017.
Results Among all the participants, only 49 were smokers and the smoking prevalence rate was 2.3%. Of the participants, 96.2% agreed with smoke-free in all settings of a hospital, 91.4% with that a physician should play an exemplary role for not smoking, 87.7% with smoking cessation service provided actively by physicians to patients, and 94.5% with tobacco dependence being a chronic disorder, respectively. Among 1 687 clinical medical professionals, 63.1% reported often asking their patients about smoking status; 82.5% reported often advising their smoker patients to quit smoking; and 44.6% were aware of there being a 'Smoking Cessation Intervention Module' established in the hospital′s Healthcare Information System.
Conclusion The smoking rate is low and the awareness of the necessity for tobacco control is high among medical professionals in a tertiary hospital with ten years′ implementation of smoke-free regulation but measures are still warranted to improve the practice and efficiency of brief intervention on tobacco control among the professionals.