Abstract
Background: Little is known about Arab health professionals' smoking practices.
Aim: This is the first study to examine smoking practices among Arab health professionals.
Methods: Background: Little is known about Arab nurses and physicians' smoking patterns.
Aim: This study aims to examine smoking patterns among Arab nurses and physicians.
Methods: A total of 918 nurses and physicians participated in this study. Data were collected using the Global Professional Health Survey.
Results: About 38.8% are current smokers. The smoking percentages for male nurses and male physicians were high (83.8%, 94.6% respectively) compared to female nurses and female physicians (16.2%, 5.4% respectively). Approximately 53.8% wanted to quit and 60.6% had made previous quit attempts that lasted for more than two days. About 64.1% believed that nurses and physicians who smoke were less likely to advise patients to stop smoking. The predictors of smoking were: age when tried first cigarettes OR=6.36, 95% CI=4.48, 9.04; father smokes OR=1.95, 95% CI=1.40, 2.72; mother smokes OR=1.99, 95% CI=1.18, 3.39; shift work OR=1.45, 95% CI=1.04, 2.03; and the interaction (gender and profession) OR=1.82, 95% CI=1.55, 2.14.
Discussion: Effective interventions often begin with and/or depend on nurses and physicians being committed to smoking cessation. Given the very high smoking rates among nurses and physicians a key priority must be to provide quit smoking programs and to enable them to become effective champions of smoking cessation nationwide.
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