Smoking frequency, cessation knowledge; attitudes and beliefs among internal and surgery residents

Smoking is a worldwide problem affecting large number of people with serious consequences. Fighting with this addiction requires involvement of all health professionals regardless of their specialty and working posts. This study is designed to investigate the difference and similarities between internal and surgery specialty residents regarding the smoking frequency, cessation knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. 121 internal and 30 surgery specialty residents volunteered for the study. They filled a questionnaire of 35 items about smoking status (The addiction level if they smoke), knowledge about cessation and beliefs. While 15.8% (n=24) smoked, 12 (7.9%)were ex-smokers. Internal specialty residents had more right answers compared to surgery residents (t=7.425, p=0.002). Although 92% of the residents said that providing smoking cessation services are important only 33 (21.9%) of them were provided smoking counseling services. Residents who participated in our study believe that neither their under graduate (72.9%) nor post graduate medical training (62.9%) was satisfactory in this topic.