Abstract

Health professionals, especially clinicians are in main encouraging position in preventing to initiate smoking, in community. In our study; it was aimed to determine the prevalence of cigarette smoking in health professionals, to search the effect of age, sex, family and to find out the thoughts about smoking habit. A questionnaire was performed in health professionals in primary health care, state and chest diseases hospital, in İzmir city. Questionnaires of totally 821 persons with a mean age of 33.9 years were evaluated. Participants were smoking cigarettes with a prevalence of 54.6%. The prevalence of cigarette smoking was significantly higher in persons who have a smoker mate (p=0.012) or sibling (p=0.004). The prevalence of cigarette smoking did not differ according to work units (p=0.58). Age of smoking the first cigarette was lower in female (age, 19.5±3.9 years) than man (17.7±4.3 years) (p=0.000). As the age of smoking the first cigarette dropped, the amount of smoked cigarettes per day increased (r=-0.294). Graduates of primary school was smoking the first cigarette earlier than graduates of university (p=0.021) and as the education improves, age of smoking the first cigarette was getting higher (p=0.016). In conclusion, it was determined that the prevalence of cigarette smoking in health professionals was higher than the prevalance in community; in men, age of initiating to smoke was significantly lower than female; as the age of smoking the first cigarette dropped, the amount of smoked cigarettes per day increased; as the education improves, age of smoking the first cigarette was getting higher; men smoke regularly and for a long time and consume much more than female; the prevalence of cigarette smoking correlates with the presence of smoker sibling or mate.