Health professional students' perceptions regarding their role in tobacco control: findings from the Global Health Professional Students Survey, Pakistan, 2011.

Syeda Kanwal Aslam,Sidra Zaheer,Kashif Shafique

doi:10.1186/1747-597x-9-25

Abstract

BackgroundAn important way of reducing tobacco use is to train the health professional (HP) students to assist in tobacco cessation by educating patients and public. In order to shape their thoughts for the desired role, it is vital to understand their existing perceptions regarding HP’s role in tobacco control. Thus, the aim of our study was to find out the perceptions of Pakistani HP students regarding their future role in tobacco control, and examine factors associated with negative perceptions.MethodsSecondary data analysis of the Global Health Professional Students Survey, Pakistan, 2011 was performed. Study population included 3445 health professional students in third year of graduate level programs. The dependent variable (perceptions of HP students), was developed using four questions from the survey. Students who did not regard HP’s role in tobacco control were labeled as having negative perceptions. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to analyze association between HP students’ perceptions and various socio-demographic, attitudinal and knowledge related factors; and were reported as adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval.ResultsWe found that 44.8% (n = 1542) of students do not regard HPs as role model for their patients and public, and perceive that HPs do not play an important part in patient’s quitting tobacco use. These negative perceptions were associated with male sex (OR = 1.25, 95% CI 1.02 – 1.53, p value 0.028), and poor knowledge about tobacco cessation techniques (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.12 – 1.55, p value < 0.001). Negative perceptions were also associated with their attitudes towards ban on: tobacco advertisements (OR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.13 – 2.48, p value 0.010); and tobacco use at public places (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.26 – 2.03, p value < 0.001).ConclusionThe role of HPs for tobacco control is fairly under-perceived by HP students, and the undesired negative perceptions are associated with male sex, poor knowledge about tobacco use cessation techniques and negative attitudes towards legislative control. A comprehensive approach, focusing on these aspects should be adopted to train HPs, in order to utilize them as an effective manpower for tobacco control.

Highlights

An important way of reducing tobacco use is to train the health professional (HP) students to assist in tobacco cessation by educating patients and public
The aim of our study is to find out the perceptions of Pakistani HP students regarding their future role in tobacco control, and identify factors associated with negative perceptions amongst them
We found that 22.0% of HP students (Dental = 15.4, Medical = 23.1, Pharmacy = 21.8) did not perceive HPs as role model for the patients and public

Summary

Introduction

An important way of reducing tobacco use is to train the health professional (HP) students to assist in tobacco cessation by educating patients and public. Tobacco use causes considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide; and tobacco epidemic continues to burden developing countries [1]. Current tobacco use trends threaten to cause over 8 million annual deaths worldwide by the year 2030, and more than two third of these are projected to occur in low and middle income countries [1]. The country did not host any national mass media campaign for last several years [3]. These findings highlight the poor scenario related to tobacco use and its’ legislative control in Pakistan

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