Dental Students and Smoking in Helsinki, Finland

The role of dentists as smoking cessation counselors has increasingly been emphasised. Objective: To study conceptions of undergraduate dental students about smoking-related health hazards, their smoking habits, and their roles as smoking cessation counselors as part of a European multi-center study. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was delivered individually to all undergraduate dental students participating in compulsory teaching sessions in February to March of 2005. Of the 172 students enrolled for the academic year 2004-05, 144 questionnaires (84%) were returned on the same occasion. Of the respondents, 40% were 25 years or older, 70% female. The questions covered history and frequency of smoking and knowledge of tobacco related health hazards and conceptions of health care professionals' roles as smoking cessation counselors were also included. Questions about gender, age, study year, and living conditions served as background variables. Evaluation was by chi-square statistics. Results: Never smoking was reported by 74% of female and 58% of male students. Never smoking was more frequent among clinical-phase female (81%) and preclinical-phase male students (74%). Smoking was considered very harmful by 65% of females and 45% of males and harmful by 30% and 41%, respectively. Male students (34%) reported having received enough information on smoking cessation counselling during their studies more frequently than did females (28%). None of the 1st year- and more than two-thirds of the 5th year students were satisfied with this information. All female and 86% of male students agreed that smoking cessation counselling is the professional duty of dentists. Conclusions: Smoking habits of these students followed the national pattern. There seems to be room for improvement in smoking cessation counselling competencies of dental students.