A first step incorporating smoking education into a Brazilian medical school curriculum: Results of a survey to assess the cigarette smoking knowledge, attitudes, behaviour, and clinical practices of medical students

Smoking-related illnesses are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Brazil. Despite a smoking prevalence of approximately 40%, there is lim ited national effort to reduce tobacco use in Brazil by means of public edu cation and training of health care professionals to promote smoking educati on. In particular, the need far information about tobacco warrants increase d emphasis in undergraduate medical education. An educational program on ni cotine addiction during medical school could facilitate the incorporation o f smoking cessation interventions into routine medical practice. As a preli minary step toward implementing a tobacco education and intervention progra m, this study was designed to assess knowledge and attitudes about smoking among Brazilian medical students. Five hundred thirteen (N = 513) medical s tudents from the Federal University of Rio Grande db Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, completed a self-reported questionnaire during the 1995-19 96 academic school year. Most students recognize the adverse health effects of smoking and the importance of their professional role in promoting smok ing cessation. In contradiction, however, few medical students currently pr ovide their patients who smoke with even minimal intervention. This discrep ancy supports the idea that training in nicotine addiction and smoking cess ation techniques will help medical students to develop the skills and confi dence needed to successfully intervene with their current and future patien ts.