Abstract

Introduction: The smoking rate of the general population in Turkey is considerably high. Healthcare personnel are expected to be the primary elements in the campaign against smoking. More data are needed on smoking rates and smoking behaviour among military healthcare personnel.

Material and Method: We aimed to establish smoking prevalence in a military training hospital in Istanbul and the impact of working in the healthcare sector on smokers. For this purpose, a 16-item questionnaire was applied to healthcare personnel.

Results: Among the participants, 283 were males and 254 were females. Of the male participants, 47.7% were still smoking, while 17.7% had stopped. In females, these rates were 39.8% and 13.0%, respectively. Overall, 43.9% of the healthcare professionals were currently smokers and 15.5% were ex-smokers. In this study, the smoking rate of males was found to be higher than that of females (p=0.011). There was a significant difference between the smoking rate and education levels (p=0.011). The smoking rate was found to decrease with increased levels of education (r=-0.145, p=0.001).

Conclusion: Data acquired in this study reveal that almost half (43.9%) of military healthcare professionals are smokers. Smoking prevalence of military healthcare professionals is similar to the general population in Turkey. Current anti-smoking campaigns are not effective in promoting smoking cessation.