Smoking habits of final-year Galician medical students: 38 years of follow-up

Introduction Tobacco consumption by health professionals influences their attitude on the smoking habits of their patients. Students in the final year of their medical degree will have to assume, a few months after graduation, professional duties such as smoker management. Therefore, it is important...

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Main Authors: Agustín Montes Martínez, Juan Jesús Gestal-Otero, Mónica Pérez-Rios
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: European Publishing 2023-04-01
Series:Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tobaccopreventioncessation.com/Smoking-habits-of-final-year-Galician-medical-students-38-years-of-follow-up,162737,0,2.html
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author Agustín Montes Martínez
Juan Jesús Gestal-Otero
Mónica Pérez-Rios
author_facet Agustín Montes Martínez
Juan Jesús Gestal-Otero
Mónica Pérez-Rios
author_sort Agustín Montes Martínez
collection DOAJ
description Introduction Tobacco consumption by health professionals influences their attitude on the smoking habits of their patients. Students in the final year of their medical degree will have to assume, a few months after graduation, professional duties such as smoker management. Therefore, it is important to assess their smoking habits and their attitudes towards tobacco. Material and Methods From 1985 until 2022, we carried out a cross-sectional study every academic year about the smoking consumption of final-year medical students, as well as about their tobacco beliefs and attitudes. For gathering the information, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all students enrolled in the final course of Medicine at the University of Santiago de Compostela. To analyse the trends, we used a joinpoint regression that permits the identification of points of change in the series and estimates the Annual Percent Change (APC) of each period. Results Daily smoker prevalence dramatically dropped from 1985 to 2022: from 61.1% to 8.8% among male, and from 53.8% to 8.6% among female. The male students’ regression has detected 1 join point in 1991 that splits the follow-up time in two periods (APC= -12.25% and -3.33% before and after respectively). Among female students the joinpoint appears later, in 1994 (APC= -8.55% and -4.11% respectively). Tobacco consumption among daily smokers declined during the period too: from 19.7 c/d to 7.4 c/d among male and from 16.1 c/d to 6.3 c/d among female. Among male students regression didn’t find any joinpoint, with a continuous APC (-1.98%). Among female one joinpoint was detected in 2009 with a deep drop in the last period (APC= - 1.43% and -4.46% before and after respectively). Conclusions A very important drop of the smoking prevalence among last year medical students occurred between 1985 and nowadays. The drop was similar in both sexes. The same trend happened with the number of cigarettes consumed per day.
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spelling doaj.art-275dc4f3fa564d3b910a0e5328275d542024-01-31T10:28:10ZengEuropean PublishingTobacco Prevention and Cessation2459-30872023-04-019Supplement10.18332/tpc/162737162737Smoking habits of final-year Galician medical students: 38 years of follow-upAgustín Montes Martínez0Juan Jesús Gestal-Otero1Mónica Pérez-Rios2Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela, SpainHealth Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, SpainHealth Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, SpainIntroduction Tobacco consumption by health professionals influences their attitude on the smoking habits of their patients. Students in the final year of their medical degree will have to assume, a few months after graduation, professional duties such as smoker management. Therefore, it is important to assess their smoking habits and their attitudes towards tobacco. Material and Methods From 1985 until 2022, we carried out a cross-sectional study every academic year about the smoking consumption of final-year medical students, as well as about their tobacco beliefs and attitudes. For gathering the information, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all students enrolled in the final course of Medicine at the University of Santiago de Compostela. To analyse the trends, we used a joinpoint regression that permits the identification of points of change in the series and estimates the Annual Percent Change (APC) of each period. Results Daily smoker prevalence dramatically dropped from 1985 to 2022: from 61.1% to 8.8% among male, and from 53.8% to 8.6% among female. The male students’ regression has detected 1 join point in 1991 that splits the follow-up time in two periods (APC= -12.25% and -3.33% before and after respectively). Among female students the joinpoint appears later, in 1994 (APC= -8.55% and -4.11% respectively). Tobacco consumption among daily smokers declined during the period too: from 19.7 c/d to 7.4 c/d among male and from 16.1 c/d to 6.3 c/d among female. Among male students regression didn’t find any joinpoint, with a continuous APC (-1.98%). Among female one joinpoint was detected in 2009 with a deep drop in the last period (APC= - 1.43% and -4.46% before and after respectively). Conclusions A very important drop of the smoking prevalence among last year medical students occurred between 1985 and nowadays. The drop was similar in both sexes. The same trend happened with the number of cigarettes consumed per day.https://www.tobaccopreventioncessation.com/Smoking-habits-of-final-year-Galician-medical-students-38-years-of-follow-up,162737,0,2.htmlsmokingsmoking habitstobacco consumption
spellingShingle Agustín Montes Martínez
Juan Jesús Gestal-Otero
Mónica Pérez-Rios
Smoking habits of final-year Galician medical students: 38 years of follow-up
Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
smoking
smoking habits
tobacco consumption
title Smoking habits of final-year Galician medical students: 38 years of follow-up
title_full Smoking habits of final-year Galician medical students: 38 years of follow-up
title_fullStr Smoking habits of final-year Galician medical students: 38 years of follow-up
title_full_unstemmed Smoking habits of final-year Galician medical students: 38 years of follow-up
title_short Smoking habits of final-year Galician medical students: 38 years of follow-up
title_sort smoking habits of final year galician medical students 38 years of follow up
topic smoking
smoking habits
tobacco consumption
url https://www.tobaccopreventioncessation.com/Smoking-habits-of-final-year-Galician-medical-students-38-years-of-follow-up,162737,0,2.html
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