Prevalence and Attitude Towards Tobacco Smoking Among Health Care Workers in Kano State.

Abstract

Context Tobacco smoking is the second major cause of death and the fourth most common risk factor for many diseases worldwide. Health care workers should in addition to promoting smoking prevention and cessation strategies, also serve as role models and advocates in the fight against smoking. Objectives. This study aims to assess the prevalence of and attitude towards tobacco smoking among primary health care workers in Kumbotso Local Government Area (LGA). Methodology With the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire, a cross sectional survey was carried out among 240 primary health care workers selected by simple random sampling from a list of all the health workers in the LGA. Results esults An overall ever smoked prevalence of 39.6% was recorded. Most (87.5%) of the health workers were indifferent to smoking and more male health workers did smoke. Conclusion There was a high smoking prevalence rate observed especially among the male health workers which suggest that they should be targeted with smoking prevention and cessation activities so that they can serve as role models to the general public in the global fight to reduce smoking and its consequences worldwide.

Key words: Smoking, Prevalence, Health Workers, MDGs, Smoking Cessation, Prevention.