IADR Abstract Archives

Patient demand for smoking cessation advice in dental practice

Graphic health warnings have been shown to increase health knowledge and encourage tobacco users to quit. Objectives: This study set out to investigate whether the inclusion of graphic health warning pictures (including a picture of a mouth and throat cancer) on tobacco products as part of the Australian National Tobacco campaign would elicit measurably increased demand for smoking cessation advice in dental practices. Methods: A cross-sectional survey in private dental practices in New South Wales, Australia. Separate questionnaires were provided for dentists and patients from their practice. Questions comprised smoking practices, awareness of the tobacco campaign and attitudes toward smoking cessation activities in dental practice. Results: The majority (85.7%) of the dentists (n=29) and of dental patients (92.4%; n=800) recalled seeing the graphic health warnings, with the mouth and throat cancer the most commonly observed. Television was the main medium. The majority of the patients (>90%)showed good knowledge about the effect of smoking on general and oral health. Nineteen percent of the patients (n=152) reported themselves as current smokers. Half of them were planning to quit within six months (51.6 %) and agreed that graphic health warnings made them more likely to quit (47.7 %). Dentists showed positive attitudes toward cessation activities, but perceived that many patients lacked motivation to quit smoking. This was reported as the main barrier to offer smoking cessation advice. Forty percent of smokers would try to quit if asked by the dentists, but only 25% expressed a preference for the dentist for cessation advice. No change in demand for smoking cessation advice from dentists was found since the launch of the National Tobacco Campaign in 2006. Conclusion: Health warning pictures seemed to increase the patients' intention to quit smoking, however it did not seem to generate more demand for smoking cessation advice from their dentists.


Division: Southeast Asian Division Meeting
Meeting: 2007 Southeast Asian Division Meeting (Bali, Indonesia)
Location: Bali, Indonesia
Year: 2007
Final Presentation ID:
Abstract Category|Abstract Category(s): Scientific Groups
Authors
  • Afifah, Ratu Mirah  ( Padjadjaran University, Bandung, N/A, Indonesia )
  • Schwarz, Eli  ( University of Sydney, Surry Hills, N/A, Australia )
  • SESSION INFORMATION
    Oral Session
    Health Services Research I