Smoking knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and associated factors among Chinese male surgeons.

Background: The purpose of this study was to understand and assess the smoking knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and associated factors among Chinese male surgeons.

Methods: A total of 823 Chinese male surgeons from six cities in China participated in a survey of smoking knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in 2004. This study presents descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses of factors associated with the respondents' smoking behavior and smoking cessation activity.

Results: The current smoking prevalence for Chinese male surgeons was 45.2, and 42.5% of respondents reported having smoked in front of their patients. Few of the respondents always asked patients about their smoking status (25%) or advised smokers to quit smoking (27.2%). Logistic regression models found that current smoking status was significantly associated (P < 0.05) with the surgeons' knowledge of the harms of active and passive smoking and their attitudes toward smoke-free hospitals and health role modeling by physicians. Smoking in front of patients was significantly associated (P < 0.05) with the respondents' knowledge of active smoking harms, attitudes toward smoke-free hospitals, and cigarette consumption. The surgeons' smoking cessation activity was significantly associated (P < 0.05) with their knowledge about the harms of active smoking, their rates of advising patients to quit smoking, and their knowledge of the harms of passive smoking.

Conclusions: Male surgeons have the highest smoking prevalence among Chinese physicians. They should actively participate in tobacco control training and education to improve their knowledge and attitudes toward smoking, which will improve their own smoking behavior and smoking cessation practices. Only by engaging all parts of the health care system, including surgeons, can China make headway against its tobacco epidemic.