The influence of personal tobacco smoking on the clinical practice of Italian chest physicians

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.