Smoking Habits and Attitudes in Students of the Third Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague.

AIM: This study seeks to assess smoking habits, attitudes and intention to quit in students of the Third Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey designed to obtain information on smoking history, current smoking status, cessation attempts, and attitudes towards smoking among health professionals was conducted in 452 students of the first and last years of a 6-year Master's Study Programme (General Medicine) and a 3-year Bachelor's Study Programme (Public Health). An anonymous questionnaire was administered during the classes in the course of academic years 2011-12 and 2012-13. RESULTS: 5.7% of the Master's Study Programme students (3.3% women and 9.0% men ) and 4.8% of the Bachelor's Study Programme students reported that they are regular smokers. The share of regular smokers was almost twice as big in students of the English Curriculum of the Master's Programme (10.7%) in comparison with the students of the Czech Curriculum (4.5%), and more than twice as big in students of the last years of both study programmes (3.9% in students of the 1st year and 10.8% in students of the 6th year of the Master's Programme; 3.2% in students of the 1st year and 7.0% in students of the 3rd year of the Bachelor's Study Programme). At the time of the research, 18.9% of students of the Master's Programme and 17.1% of students of the Bachelor's Programme were occasional smokers. 5.9% of students of the Master's Programme and 19.0% of students of the Bachelor's Programme reported that they quit smoking during their studies at the medical faculty; on the contrary, 9.8% of students of the Master's Programme and 14.3% of students of the Bachelor's Programme started smoking during that time. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking in health professionals undermines their significant role in health promotion and prevention of chronic diseases in their patients. Therefore, education at the medical faculty should focus on motivation of future health professionals towards non-smoking except providing knowledge on current research and guidance on early identification and further intervention in smokers.

Evaluation of e-Bug, an educational pack, teaching about prudent antibiotic use and hygiene, in the Czech Republic, France and England.

OBJECTIVES: e-Bug, a junior and senior school educational programme to decrease the spread of infection and unnecessary antibiotic use, was developed and consisted of eight sections providing information on the spread, treatment and prevention of infection as well as basic information on microbes, both useful and harmful. Each section comprised teacher background information, lesson plans and an interactive student activity, and extension activities were also available for more able students. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the e-Bug pack in improving children's knowledge in these key areas, when used within the National Curriculum in England, France and the Czech Republic. METHODS: Junior (9-11 years) and senior (12-15 years) school classes were divided into either control or intervention groups for evaluation of the resource. Students were required to complete identical knowledge questionnaires at three timepoints (before, immediately after and 6 weeks after teaching), to assess knowledge change and retention. Teaching, using the e-Bug pack, was given by junior and senior school teachers. RESULTS: The junior e-Bug teaching pack demonstrated a significant improvement in student's knowledge in all sections and there was no significant decrease in student knowledge observed after a 6 week period. Knowledge improvement with the senior e-Bug pack varied between regions, although consistent improvement was observed for Gloucestershire (England) and Ostrava (Czech Republic). CONCLUSIONS: Although a success, modifications are required in both packs to further improve student knowledge and make the packs more appealing.