TOBACCO CONSUMPTION AND INTENTIONS TO QUIT SMOKING AMONG HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Healthcare professionals have the mission to advise and help people suffering addictions, as well as being models for their patients. The advice of healthcare professionals is considered very important in helping people to cease smoking. However, if they themselves are smokers it is more difficult to exercise this role. This study examined the prevalence of smoking in a sample of healthcare professionals by age, gender and profession. The research also investigated their intentions regarding quitting smoking in the near future. The target population was healthcare professionals working in the 23 primary healthcare services in the province of Girona (Spain). Cluster sampling was used to randomly select 10 primary healthcare services. The final sample consisted of 195 healthcare professionals who worked in the selected services. The prevalence of tobacco consumption was 16.8%. Of the remainder, 27.9% were ex-smokers and 55.3% had never smoked. No significant differences were found by gender, profession (doctor/nurse) or age. Only 6.2% of the current smokers had the firm intention to quit smoking within 30 days. Although the prevalence of tobacco consumption among healthcare professionals is lower than in the general population, actions must be taken to help this group to quit this harmful habit, not only because they are putting their own health at risk, but also because of their substantial influence on the general population.