Cigarette smoking among immigrant Salvadoreans in Washington, DC: behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs.

There has been an influx of immigrants from El Salvador to the Washington, DC (DC) area, but little is known about the health behaviors of this population. This study was conducted to describe the prevalence of cigarette smoking among adult Salvadorean immigrants to the DC area. Bilingual interviewers administered a face-to-face interview to participants recruited from throughout the community. Complete data were available for 1,458 participants: 10.8% of those surveyed were current smokers and 11.7% were former smokers. Men were significantly more likely than women to have ever smoked either in the past (adjusted prevalence difference [PD = 21.0%] or currently (PD = 21.2%). The respondents tended to believe that smoking was a "habit" rather than an addition. Only 16% lived in households where smoking was permitted, and the majority supported smoke-free policies in public places, with men and current smokers being less permissive. The smoking behavior exclusively represented the smoking pattern that the Salvadoreans had adopted before immigration. The data suggest that smoking control strategies aimed at this population should seek to reduce the onset of smoking among men and continue to keep smoking among women rare.

A first step incorporating smoking education into a Brazilian medical school curriculum: results of a survey to assess the cigarette smoking knowledge, attitudes, behaviour, and clinical practices of medical students.

Smoking-related illnesses are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Brazil. Despite a smoking prevalence of approximately 40%, there is limited national effort to reduce tobacco use in Brazil by means of public education and training of health care professionals to promote smoking education. In particular, the need for information about tobacco warrants increased emphasis in undergraduate medical education. An educational program on nicotine addiction during medical school could facilitate the incorporation of smoking cessation interventions into routine medical practice. As a preliminary step toward implementing a tobacco education and intervention program, this study was designed to assess knowledge and attitudes about smoking among Brazilian medical students. Five hundred thirteen (N = 513) medical students from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, completed a self-reported questionnaire during the 1995-1996 academic school year. Most students recognize the adverse health effects of smoking and the importance of their professional role in promoting smoking cessation. In contradiction, however, few medical students currently provide their patients who smoke with even minimal intervention. This discrepancy supports the idea that training in nicotine addiction and smoking cessation techniques will help medical students to develop the skills and confidence needed to successfully intervene with their current and future patients.