Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104610

Yoshitaka Kaneita, MD, Eiji Ibuka, MD, Takeo Miyake, MD, Satoru Harano, MD, Eise Yokoyama, and Takashi Ohida, MD. public health, Nihon University, 30-1 Ooyaguchi Kamimachi, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-8610, Japan, 03-3972-8111, kaneita@med.nihon-u.ac.jp

The prevalence of smoking among Japanese male physicians was higher than that in the U.S.A. and U.K. Under this situation, the Japan Medical Association announced the Declaration for the Nation's Medical Professions to Combat Smoking in 2003, and advocated in that declaration promotion of nonsmoking among physicians and other medical professionals and prohibition of smoking in medical institutions and all physicians' halls throughout the nation. With this antismoking measure now in place, it is very important when planning future antismoking measures in Japan to understand smoking behavior among physicians themselves and the actual status of their giving smoking-cessation guidance. Therefore, we conducted this cross-sectional study to estimate the prevalence of smoking among physicians in Japan and to clarify their attitudes toward smoking actually taken in 2004. The survey was performed using self-administered anonymous questionnaire. Subjects were randomly selected 3,000 male and 1,500 female physicians from members of the JMA. The data from 3,633 respondents were analyzed. The current smoking prevalence among male physicians in 2004 was 21.5%, significantly lower than that found in 2000 at 27.1%. The current smoking prevalence among female physicians in 2004 was 5.4%, which did not show a statistically significant difference from that of 2000 at 6.8%. The percentage of giving stepped-up smoking-cessation guidance increased. It will be required to take antismoking measures targeting Japanese physicians and medical students in the future, considering these findings.

Learning Objectives:

• To understand the prevalence of smoking among Japanese physicians

Keywords: Tobacco, Epidemiology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.