[Prevalence of smoking by women physicians and nurses in the community of Madrid].

BACKGROUND

Tobacco is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in our country. The tobacco smoking by the sanitary staff has a negative influence in the rest of the population. In Spain women smoke more than men. The subject of our study is to identify the tobacco consume in the female sanitary staff in the Community of Madrid.

METHODS

Transversal descriptive study in the female sanitary staff in the Community of Madrid, using a conglomerate polystage sampling.

RESULTS

We studied 1,235 professionals (435 medicine doctors and 800 nurses). 43.07% of them were smokers, with the higher rate in nurses (47.68%) that are working at hospitals (46.68%). On one hand the tobacco consumption was smaller in medicine doctors between 20-30 years old (22.88%). On the other hand it turned out that nurses in their twenties formed a large group of smokers. A 18.3% of the total sample were actually smokers and a 64.65% had tried to give it up. A 2.93% of woman smoked without taking care if patients was close and 14.94% thought that it had to be allowed to smoke in the hospitals halls. 27.46% of smokers thought that smoking was allowed in their hospitals and 90.84% said that they usually smoked in the sanitary staff rooms, and 30.37% of them answered that specific rooms for smokers were available in their working places.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of smoking in the health professionals in the Community of Madrid is very high. Medicine doctors smoke more than nurses, but young nurses smoke than young medicine doctors. Sanitary staff do not obey the no-smoking law in hospitals. The observance of this law is very low.