Smoking status, knowledge and attitudes towards tobacco among health profession students in Montenegro

Background Conducting educational programs in order to provide information and expand knowledge, should be primarily coordinated by health workers, which normally should be role models for a healthy lifestyle . Aim To determine smoking status, smoking related knowledge, attitudes and behavior in health profession students. Methods The Global Health Professional Student Survey (GHPSS) that collected information on health profession students (medical, nursing, dental and pharmacy) was carried out according to the established methodology of the World Health Organization. In Montenegro survey was conducted between October 2010 and March 2011 on a sample of 822 health profession students . For statistical processing of data descriptive and nonparametric analytical method as well as multivariate analysis were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software v. 17.0. Results In total 25% of surveyed students use tobacco, and 9% of them on regular basis. Health professional students that smoke more often support the idea that tobacco shouldn’t be banned in public places. They also think that health professionals do not need to be nonsmokers in order to advise their patients on the importance of non- smoking to health. In addition they don’t consider special education of health workers necessary so they could apply adequate and scientifically proven methods of smoking cessation on their patients. Conclusion Research data show that knowledge and attitudes towards tobacco among health profession students, especially regarding ban on tobacco products in public places as well as special training programs and methods of smoking cessation for health workers, are related to smoking status of respondents. Keywords: tobacco, smoking, students Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}