Tobacco smoking habits among a cross-section of rural physicians in China

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence and distribution of tobacco smoking among rural Chinese physicians. DESIGN: A self-reporting survey adapted from previous international studies. Setting: A teaching hospital in Hebei Province, China. SUBJECTS: A complete cross-section of 361 physicians working in all hospital departments. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 79.2%, among whom 15.7% (95% confidence interval (CI) 12.0-20.4) were current smokers and 1.0% ex-smokers (95% CI 0.4-3.1). There were no female smokers when stratified by sex, although the prevalence rate among male physicians was 31.9% (95% CI 24.8-40.0). The prevalence of smoking varied widely by hospital department, ranging from zero in the obstetrics and gynaecology department, to 32.6% in the surgical unit. Smoking rates also varied by age, with physicians younger than 25 years having the lowest prevalence (6.3%). Although they only accounted for 7.1% of the entire group by number, the highest smoking prevalence was seen among physicians aged 50-54 years (31.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Although our study suggests that smoking is an important health issue for rural Chinese physicians, the distribution of risk is not uniform. Future preventive measures will, therefore, need to consider the individual situation of physicians who smoke, particularly those in the older age groups.