Tobacco Use, Exposure to Secondhand Smoke, and Cessation Counseling Among Health Professions Students: Greek Data from the Global Health Professions Student Survey (GHPSS)

Anastasia Barbouni,Christos Hadjichristodoulou,Jenny Kremastinou,Kyriakoula Merakou,Eleni Antoniadou,George Rahiotis,Kallirrhoe Kourea,Charles W Warren,Evangelia Miloni

doi:10.3390/ijerph9010331

Abstract

We conducted the GHPSS (Global Health Professions Student Survey) to obtain information regarding health profession students’ smoking habits and perceptions, exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) as well as level of knowledge and training on tobacco use and smoking cessation counseling. GHPSS is a survey for third-year students in the following fields: health visitors, dentistry, medicine, nursing and/or pharmacy. The highest tobacco use prevalence rate and exposure to SHS were recorded among health visitor students with 46.4% and 33.3% respectively. The majority of the respondents believed that their profession serves as a role model for their patients. Formal training on cessation counseling ranged between 10.7% for health visitor students to 22.4% for nursing students. The relatively high percentage of health profession students who currently smoke and the alarmingly high percentage of those exposed to SHS indicate lack of concerted efforts for implementation and effective enforcement of the anti-tobacco policy measures. Despite its significance, formal training on cessation counseling for students is strikingly low. These results indicate the urgent need to train health professional students on tobacco cessation counseling and educate them on the dangers of tobacco use, SHS and the positively influential role they can play to affect their patients’ smoking habits.

Highlights

Tobacco use is one of the major preventable causes of premature death and disease in the World.A disproportionate share of the global tobacco burden falls on developing countries, where 84% of the current 1.3 billion smokers reside [1]
This study revealed a high percentage of health profession students that were smokers in Greece
Results of the international GHPSS study conducted among health professions students revealed that 20% were current smokers and the majority believed that they should receive formal training on counseling their patients to quit tobacco

Summary

Introduction

Tobacco use is one of the major preventable causes of premature death and disease in the World. A disproportionate share of the global tobacco burden falls on developing countries, where 84% of the current 1.3 billion smokers reside [1]. The World Health Organization (WHO) attributes approximately 5 million deaths a year to tobacco. The number is expected to exceed 8 million deaths by 2030, with approximately 70% of these deaths occurring in developing countries [2]. In Greece, smoking prevalence among adults is the highest in Europe, with 42% of current smokers and tobacco consumption is the second highest in the region, with 21.4 cigarettes per smoker per day [3]. The above findings and projections are worrying and health professionals can play a critical role in tobacco control by providing effective interventions against tobacco use by counseling their patients to quit smoking

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Discussion

Conclusion