Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Jul;33(1):15-22.
doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2007.02.037.

Chinese physicians and their smoking knowledge, attitudes, and practices

Yuan Jiang  1 , Michael K Ong, Elisa K Tong, Yan Yang, Yi Nan, Quan Gan, Teh-Wei Hu
Affiliations

Chinese physicians and their smoking knowledge, attitudes, and practices

Yuan Jiang et al. Am J Prev Med. 2007 Jul.

Abstract

Background: China has the most smokers among the world's nations. Physicians play a key role in smoking cessation, but little is known about Chinese physicians and smoking.

Methods: This 2004 clustered randomized survey of 3552 hospital-based physicians from six Chinese cities measured smoking attitudes, knowledge, personal behavior, and cessation practices for patients. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of factors associated with asking about or advising against smoking were conducted in 2005 and 2006.

Results: Smoking prevalence was 23% among all Chinese physicians, 41% for men and 1% for women. Only 30% report good implementation of smoke-free workplace policies and 37% of current smokers have smoked in front of their patients. Although 64% usually advise smokers to quit, only 48% usually ask about smoking status, and 29% believe most smokers will follow their cessation advice. Less than 7% set quit dates or use pharmacotherapy when helping smokers quit. Although 95% and 89%, respectively, know that active or passive smoking causes lung cancer, only 66% and 53%, respectively, know that active or passive smoking causes heart disease. Physicians were significantly more likely to ask about or advise against smoking if they believed that counseling about health harms helps smokers quit and that most smokers would follow smoking-cessation advice.

Conclusions: Physician smoking cessation, smoke-free workplaces, and education on smoking-cessation techniques need to be increased among Chinese physicians. Strengthening counseling skills may result in more Chinese physicians helping smoking patients to quit. These improvements can help reduce the Chinese and worldwide health burden from smoking.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No financial conflict of interest was reported by the authors of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Surveyed cities
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Yang GH, Ma JM, Liu N, Zhou LN. [Smoking and passive smoking in Chinese, 2002] Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi. 2005 Feb;26(2):77–83. - PubMed
    1. Liu BQ, Peto R, Chen ZM, et al. Emerging tobacco hazards in China: 1. Retrospective proportional mortality study of one million deaths. BMJ. 1998 Nov 21;317(7170):1411–1422. - PMC - PubMed
    1. He J, Gu D, Wu X, et al. Major causes of death among men and women in China. N Engl J Med. 2005 Sep 15;353(11):1124–1134. - PubMed
    1. A clinical practice guideline for treating tobacco use and dependence: A US Public Health Service report. The Tobacco Use and Dependence Clinical Practice Guideline Panel, Staff, and Consortium Representatives. JAMA. 2000 Jun 28;283(24):3244–3254. - PubMed
    1. Schroeder SA. What to do with a patient who smokes. JAMA. 2005 Jul 27;294(4):482–487. - PubMed

Publication types