Prevalance of Smoking and Attitudes of the Physicians and Medical Students Towards Smoking

Objectives: Physicians should he an active group in helping people to stop smoking. The aim of this study was 10 assess the attitudes toward smoking among medical students and physicians. Material and Methods: The study group consisted of 386 physicians (ranging from general practitioners to professors) working in the city of Kayseri and 48.7 medical students of Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine. A total of 873 subjects (64.4% male, 35.6 % female), were given the questionnaire. Results: It was found that 57.7 % had never smoked, 11.6 % were ex -smokers and 31.3 % were current smokers. Of the male responders 37.5 % and of the female responders 11.6 % were current smokers. Most of the research group (90.4 %) approved that smoking should he restricted in enclosed public places and 52.5 % stated that they would he annoyed with others smoking near them. Physicians are against smoking on buses (87.2 %), on trains (71.8 %), on aeroplanes (82.7 %, in schools (78.5 %), in hospitals (85.0 %), in restaurants/cafeterias (54.4 %) and in office (54.4 %. Almost all the subjects (98.2 %) stated that smoking should not he allowed when a physician is examining a patient. However 18.0 % of them claimed that they smoke near their patients. While 38.5 % added that they do not make the necessary effort to make people stop smoking; only 3.9 % of them replied that they constantly had tried to educate and persuade smokers to give up. Approximately half agreed that warning signs on cigarette pockets were beneficial and 63.7 % said cigarettes should not he advertised. Conclusions: A continuing education program should he given to motivate physicians and medical students on their role about smoking habbits in the society.