ABSTRACT

Tobacco consumption is an important public health issue due to its increasing prevalence and negative effect on health. Physicians are an influential slice of population whose behavior may have an impact on the society, and considering they adopt their beliefs and behavior regarding smoking during their education, the need for a detailed assessment of physicians' and physician candidates smoking habits and reasons arises to develop intervention programs.The study aims to examine the prevalence of and the reasons for smoking in students and healthcare staff of Gazi University Faculty of Medicine.

The cross-sectional research consisted of a total of 696 participants who are students, research assistants and lecturers in the Gazi University Faculty of Medicine.

The study found out 38.2% of the participants have tried smoking at least once in their life and 27.4% still smoke. Logistic regression analysis results show male gender (RR: 4,221), lack of knowledge about smoking (RR:2,139) and unbalanced diet (RR: 3,684) are statistically significant predictors of smoking. Furthermore, it was found out that students with higher income smoked more.

The increasing prevalence of smoking is thought-provoking. Considering the importance of the physicians' part in acting as role models, increasing prevalence of smoking in physicians pose a major risk on public health. Therefore, developing interventions to stop physicians' smoking are of crucial importance.