• Top
• Background
• Materials and methods
• Results
• Conclusions
• References

This article is part of the supplement: International Society on Brain and Behaviour: 3rd International Congress on Brain and Behaviour

Poster presentation

Nicotine addiction among physicians in Greece

Aggelos Papadopoulos, Maria Katsardi and Constantinos Koutsojannis

Dep of Physiotherapy, Aigion Branch of Higher Technological & Educational Institute of Patras, Aigion, Greece

corresponding author email

from International Society on Brain and Behaviour: 3rd International Congress on Brain and Behaviour
Thessaloniki, Greece. 28 November – 2 December 2007

Annals of General Psychiatry 2008, 7(Suppl 1):S340doi:10.1186/1744-859X-7-S1-S340

The electronic version of this abstract is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.annals-general-psychiatry.com/content/7/S1/S340

Published:

17 April 2008

© 2008 Papadopoulos et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Background

Physicians are highly respected in their communities acting as role models in issues related to health, and people turn to them for advice and consultation. For this reason, they are very important in advancing any tobacco control policies. According to a recent study overall, 38.6% of the Greek physicians (40% of men; 37% of women) currently smoke. Our pilot study tries to establish an estimate of the prevalence of nicotine dependence among smoking physicians as well as other health professionals in Greece.

Materials and methods

Anonymous standardized questionnaires including Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) consisted of 6 items, were distributed to 75 practicing physicians (all smokers) in three cities in South-western Greece. In addition, there were other questions regarding demographic characteristics and awareness of the dangers of smoking. Doctors were visited at their working places (hospitals, private clinics, teaching hospitals) during one month period in 2007.

Results

Of those who reported smoking as “just a habit”, 30,7 % (23 of 75) scored > 6 on the FTND subscale. Scores FTND>6 indicate “Nicotine Dependance”. There were significant differences on demographic subscales between those presenting with or without nicotine addiction (i.e age, years of smoking and family conditions).

Conclusions

An extrapolation of our results to encompass all physicians in Greece would be reasonable, since physicians are a rather homogeneous group in this country. Our results are especially alarming because anti-smoking campaigns are usually more successful in doctors than in the general population.

References

1. Bellagio Statement on Tobacco and Sustainable Development

   Tobacco Control 1994, 3:358-61.

2. Nelson DE, Giovino GA, Emont SE, et al.: Trends in cigarette smoking among US physicians and nurses.

   JAMA 1994, 271:1273-5. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text

3. Heatherton TF, Kozlowski LT, Frecker RC, Fagerstrom KO: The Fagerstrom Test for Nictoine Dependence: A revision of the Fagerstrom Tolerance questionnaire.

   British Journal of Addictions 1991, 86:1119-27. Publisher Full Text

4. Sotiropoulos A, Gikas A, Spanou E, Dimitrelos D, Karakostas F, Skliros E, Apostolou O, Politakis P, Pappas S: Smoking habits and associated factors among Greek Physicians.

   Public Health 121:333-340. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text

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