Smoking habits and associated factors among Greek physicians.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the smoking habits and associated risk factors among Greek physicians. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of a randomly selected sample of Greek physicians. METHODS: A national sample of 1284 physicians (718 men, 566 women) participated in the study, which was conducted between September 2003 and June 2005. Data were collected through an anonymous self-completed questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to analyse the influence of different factors on the probability of a physician being a current or former smoker. RESULTS: Overall, 38.6% of the physicians (40% of men; 37% of women) currently smoked, 13.8% were former smokers, and 47.6% had never smoked. Eighty-three per cent of smokers reported starting smoking before the age of 25 years, with half of them during medical school (aged 19-24 years). Multivariate analyses revealed that physicians who were male, unmarried, divorced or widowed, surgeons or anaesthetists, and residents were more likely to be current smokers. Former smokers were more likely to be older, male and born in a rural area. Moreover, the odds of being a current or former smoker were significantly higher among physicians with a history of parents who smoked. The proportion of physicians who reported counselling patients (often or always) to stop smoking was lower among current smokers compared with those who never smoked or those who were former smokers (74.4% vs. 85.3% vs. 84.7%, P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of smoking among Greek physicians is exceedingly high and similar to that of the general population. More effective interventions that reduce smoking in the medical community should be implemented immediately so that physicians will be better able to fulfil their function as role models for the general population.

Low prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in Greek diabetic patients.

AIM: To assess the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among Greek patients with Type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), in view of the previous reports of high prevalence, particularly in patients with elevated aminotransferase. METHODS: We checked 423diabetic patients (183 male, 240 female, mean age: 63 years) attending our unit, recording epidemiology data, diabetes history, treatment and classification. Patients were stratified by aminotransferase values (normal or elevated). HCV screening was performed using standard techniques. Statistical analysis was done by using the Student's t-test for continuous variables and chi-square (chi2) for categorical data. RESULTS: Antibodies against HCV (anti-HCV) were detected in seven out of 423 diabetic patients (prevalence 1.65%). There was no correlation between HCV titre and diabetes type, duration, treatment, obesity (body mass index, BMI) or glycaemic control (HbA1c). The only correlation was elevated aminotransferase values (P<0.01) Among the established risk factors for HCV transmission, only history of previous transfusion was significant (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: It remains a strong hypothesis that diabetic patients are at increased HCV infection risk, yet our findings in Greek diabetic patients were rather low. Further studies, possibly multicentre, are needed to estimate prevalence and address the question of whether a direct effect of HCV in diabetes development does actually exist.