S. Nardini et al., The influence of personal tobacco smoking on the clinical practice of Italian chest physicians, EUR RESP J, 12(6), 1998, pp. 1450-1453
Tobacco smoking (TS) is a major cause of lung diseases. This study aimed to
determine: I) the prevalence of TS among chest physicians; 2) the influenc
e of the personal smelting habit on clinical practice; and 3) what training
about tobacco-related issues (TI) doctors received in medical school.
A total of 983 attendees at the National Meeting of the Italian National Th
oracic Society (AIPO) received a questionnaire about TI, which also contain
ed the Fagerstroem Tolerance Questionnaire?, and 605 (61.5%) answered. An i
ndependent assessment of the prevalence of smokers was carried out to minim
ize the bias of self-selection.
The numbers of smokers TI-as 151 (25%), never-smokers 246 (40.7%) and exsmo
kers 208 (34.4 %). Smoking chest physicians underestimate the health hazard
s of smoking (p<0.001) and disregard their educational role (p=0.005) more
than nonsmoking chest physicians, Compliance with smoking restrictions insi
de hospitals is frequently poor (30.1% smoke in clinics), In 33.1% of smoke
rs a high nicotine addiction was found, which influenced their behaviour in
hospital but not their ability to cope with tobacco-related problems, This
ability was generally low: 39.1% of responders reported no training about
TI.
Smoking is frequent among Italian chest physicians, who are poorly trained
about the health effects of tobacco smoking and are poorly skilled in treat
ing smokers.