Smoking in Healthcare Professionals and Its Relationship with Their Attitudes Towards Smoking Cessation Techniques in Mexico

Background: Almost a third of smoking population in Mexico reported having received counseling at some point in their life.

Objective: To evaluate how knowledge and attitudes towards smoking cessation techniques is affected by the prevalence of smoking and electronic cigarette use in health professionals.

Methods: An online survey among healthcare professionals (n=632) from Federal Hospitals and National Health Institutes in Mexico City with a questionnaire evaluating tobacco and electronic cigarette consumption and attitudes towards smoking cessation.

Results: 17.4% of the evaluated healthcare professionals were current smokers, 1.5% were current users of electronic cigarette. Only 23.2% of healthcare professionals reported receiving training in smoking cessation techniques and 32.2% thought that electronic cigarette is a method for smoking cessation. Smokers considered more often than non-smokers that healthcare professionals should not give brief intervention for smoking cessation (2= 15.4 p<0.01) and reported that they do not have a major role in smoking cessation (2= 11.1 p<0.01).

Conclusion: Smoking in healthcare professionals could adversely affect the probability of giving advice for smoking cessation to their patients. A considerable percentage of HP, smokers and no smokers, consider the electronic cigarette as a valid method of smoking cessation, when scientific evidence of effectiveness or long-term safety is lacking.

Keywords:Smoking; Smoking cessation; Electronic cigarette: healthcare professionals

Abbreviations:ENCODAT 2016-2017: National Survey of Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Consumption; WHO: World Health Organization; COPD: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; GATS: Global Survey on Smoking in Adults; GHPSS: Global Health Professions Student Survey