Policies and practices of European dental schools in relation to smoking; a ten-year follow-up

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the policies and practices of European dental schools in relation to smoking as a ten-year follow-up.

Design: A postal survey questionnaire.

Setting: European dental schools in 2003.

Materials and methods: Two hundred and one European dental schools were identified from the DentEd database. A postal questionnaire was sent to each with up to three follow-up letters to non-responders.

Main outcome measures: Results were tabulated and compared with the previous study (1993).

Results: The effective response rate (allowing for errors in the database) was 149 of 199 schools (72%). Eighty schools (59%) had written tobacco policies, 132 (92%) banned smoking in clinical areas, 127 (89%) in non-clinical areas and 122 (85%) in public access areas. One hundred and seven (76%) expected students to take tobacco histories from all patients, while 79 (69%) and 100 (70%) respectively taught students anti-smoking advice and expected them to give such advice. The number of schools teaching the role of tobacco in oral cancer aetiology was 133 (93%), in periodontal disease was 135 (94%) and in osseointegrated implant failure was 127 (91%). There was considerable regional variation between northern, southern and eastern Europe. Direct comparison of the responses of the 78 schools that replied in both 1993 and 2003 showed some improvements in most of their policies and practices. However, there was some deterioration in the practices of southern European schools.

Conclusions: While improvements were seen in the practices of most schools, comparison with recent US data suggests that European schools lag behind. However, self-selection of respondents may have introduced bias into the results.