Tanriover Ozlem, Hidiroglu Seyhan, Ay Pinar, Cook Robert L
Department of Family Medicine and Medical Education, Yeditepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
Department of Public Health, Marmara University, School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
Prim Health Care Res Dev. 2022 Mar 21;23:e15. doi: 10.1017/S1463423622000056.
E-cigarettes (ECs) are gaining popularity in Turkey among smokers. With the rapid increase of EC consumption, it is important to ascertain how family physicians (FPs) perceive ECs as they play a key role in providing smoking cessation services.
Our main objectives were to determine FPs' level of awareness and harm reduction perceptions of ECs and to delineate the factors associated with their counseling practices.
This was a cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytical components. Data were collected through questionnaires. Questions mainly focused on demographic characteristics, knowledge and own use of ECs, general attitudes towards ECs, and daily practices while performing counseling on tobacco use. In order to control confounding factors, logistic regression analysis was performed.
Among a total of 271 FPs, 49.1% (n = 133) were males and the median age (IQR) was 41 years (32-46). Almost one-fifth of the FPs (n = 52) reported that they did not provide counseling services to their smoking patients. Only 26.6% (n = 72) of the FPs stated that they felt confident enough to advise patients on smoking cessation. Of the FPs, 6.6% have stated that they have recommended ECs to their patients for smoking cessation with the strategy of harm reduction. Factors associated with providers' recommendation of ECs to their patients as a harm reduction strategy included 'believing that ECs help smokers to quit, ECs could be vaped in closed areas, and ECs were healthier than combustible tobacco products'.
In our study, FPs stated lack of confidence to advice patients on smoking cessation. Furthermore, they recommended ECs to their smoking patients as a harm reduction strategy. FPs' confidence should be increased with the trainings based on recent evidence on ECs.
电子烟在土耳其吸烟者中越来越受欢迎。随着电子烟消费量的迅速增加，确定家庭医生如何看待电子烟很重要，因为他们在提供戒烟服务方面起着关键作用。
我们的主要目标是确定家庭医生对电子烟的认知水平和减少危害的看法，并确定与他们的咨询实践相关的因素。
这是一项包含描述性和分析性成分的横断面研究。通过问卷调查收集数据。问题主要集中在人口统计学特征、对电子烟的了解和自身使用情况、对电子烟的总体态度以及在进行烟草使用咨询时的日常实践。为了控制混杂因素，进行了逻辑回归分析。
在总共271名家庭医生中，49.1%（n = 133）为男性，年龄中位数（四分位间距）为41岁（32 - 46岁）。近五分之一的家庭医生（n = 52）报告称他们没有为吸烟患者提供咨询服务。只有26.6%（n = 72）的家庭医生表示他们有足够的信心就戒烟向患者提供建议。在这些家庭医生中，6.6%表示他们曾以减少危害为策略向患者推荐电子烟用于戒烟。与提供者将电子烟作为减少危害策略推荐给患者相关的因素包括“认为电子烟有助于吸烟者戒烟、电子烟可在封闭区域使用以及电子烟比可燃烟草产品更健康”。
在我们的研究中，家庭医生表示在就戒烟向患者提供建议方面缺乏信心。此外，他们将电子烟作为减少危害策略推荐给吸烟患者。应通过基于近期电子烟证据的培训来增强家庭医生的信心。
