Prevalence of Smoking and Associated Risk Factors Among Medical Professionals in Hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Cigarette smoking is the largest preventable risk factor for morbidity and mortality in developed countries where at least one in four adults smoke cigarettes. Healthcare providers who smoke are less likely to advise patients to quit smoking. The aim of this study is to find out the frequency of tobacco smoking among medical professionals in tertiary care hospitals of Karachi, and to identify the common factors responsible for the continuation of smoking among healthcare providers. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at public and private tertiary Care Hospitals/Institutes at Karachi. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 180 subjects. An informed consent was obtained from all the subjects. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Results: Prevalence of smoking was 29%. High prevalence of smoking was among male doctors as compared to female doctors. Sixty-eight per cent of smokers started smoking between 20 to 30 years of age. Age less than 35 years, male and public sectors hospitals were more likely OR 1.23, CI (0.98-2.41), 6.40 CI (4.48-10.52) and 2.61 CI (2.20- 3.78) respectively. Conclusions: The Result of the study suggests that while healthcare smoking habits appear to be high, they are not uniformly low when compared from an international perspective. Health promotion programs focused on self-efficacy may be an effective tool for reducing the initiation, frequency, and amount of cigarette smoking among healthcare providers.