Dental students' attitude towards anti-smoking programmes: a study in Flanders, Belgium.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to assess the dental students' attitude towards tobacco cessation counselling in the dental setting and to explore the influence of knowledge, belief in effectiveness, smoking status, gender and curriculum.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study group consisted of all undergraduate students from the 2002-2003 classes of the Ghent University (n = 96). A validated questionnaire was administered to all students involving four different sections: demographic characteristics, attitude related to tobacco cessation programmes in the dental setting, belief in their effectiveness and knowledge concerning tobacco health effects. Statistical analysis included simple univariate nonparametric tests for evaluating differences in attitude towards tobacco cessation programmes, belief in effectiveness of tobacco cessation programmes in the dental setting and knowledge of students concerning tobacco health effects by year of graduation, smoking status and gender. Multiple logistic regression was chosen to calculate adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS

Students view willingness to advise individual patients to quit using tobacco. Yet only 51.3% are willing to co-operate in anti-tobacco programmes at the community level, and the perception of students of the effectiveness of smoking cessation counselling in the dental setting is low. The variance of attitude towards tobacco cessation programmes was significantly affected by knowledge and the belief in effectiveness of tobacco cessation programmes in the dental setting. Better knowledge and belief in effectiveness of tobacco cessation counselling was associated with an increasing positive attitude towards tobacco cessation programmes expressed by an odds ratio of 3.12 (95% CI 1.00-9.67) and 1.17 (95% CI 1.00-1.37) respectively.

CONCLUSION

Belief in effectiveness and knowledge seem to influence the attitude of students towards tobacco cessation counselling.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Besides imparting knowledge, the attitude of newly graduated dentists could be improved by stressing the effectiveness of smoking cessation activities during lectures and integrated training modules in the undergraduate education.