Background
Methods
Subjects
The questionnaire
Statistical analyses
Results
Malea
| Femalea
| Totalb
| ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lithuanian N = 107 | International N = 60 | Lithuanian N = 404 | International N = 34 | Lithuanian N = 511 | International N = 94 | |||||||
n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | |
Current smoking:
| ||||||||||||
Non-smoker | 63 | (58.9) | 27 | (44.2) | 313 | (77.3) | 27 | (77.1) | 370 | (72.3) | 65 | (68.4) |
Occasional smoker | 24 | (22.4) | 17 | (27.9) | 72 | (17.8) | 5 | (14.3) | 97 | (19.0) | 16 | (16.8) |
Regular smoker | 20 | (18.7) | 17 | (27.9) | 20 | (4.9) | 3 | (8.6) | 44 | (8.7) | 14 | (14.7) |
Occasional/regular smoker | 44 | (41.1) | 34 | (55.7) | 92 | (22.7) | 8 | (22.9) | 142 | (27.7) | 30 | (31.6) |
Previous smoking:
| ||||||||||||
Have smoked at least 100 times | 58 | (54.2) | 35 | (57.4) | 128 | (31.7) | 4 | (11.8)* | 193 | (37.8) | 23 | (24.5)* |
Have ever smoked regularly at least one year | 31 | (29.2) | 29 | (47.5)* | 62 | (15.3) | 5 | (14.7) | 98 | (19.2) | 22 | (23.2) |
Have tried to quit smoking at least once | 26 | (59.1) | 26 | (74.3) | 43 | (48.9) | 2 | (28.6) | 73 | (52.9) | 15 | (50.0) |
Factor analysis of scales for knowledge and attitudes
Scales, itemsb, and measures | Factor 1 | Factor 2 |
---|---|---|
Harmfulness (of smoking)
| ||
Cronbach’s α = 0.73 KMO measure: 0.67; Bartlett’s test: p < 0.001
| ||
How harmful is smoking to oral health? | 0.86 | |
How harmful is smoking to health? | 0.81 | |
How harmful is environmental cigarette smoke to health? | 0.77 | |
Total variance explained by a Factor
| 66.9% | |
Addiction (to smoking)
| ||
Cronbach’s α = 0.68 KMO measure:0.71; Bartlett’s test: p < 0.001
| ||
Habitually addictive | 0.77 | |
Psychologically addictive | 0.73 | |
Physically addictive | 0.70 | |
Socially addictive | 0.67 | |
Total variance explained by a Factor
| 51.8% | |
Willingness (to patients’ smoking cessation)
| ||
Cronbach’s α = 0.79 KMO measure: 0.75; Bartlett’s test: p < 0.001
| ||
Are you willing to use anti-tobacco programs in your own practice? (e.g. flyers, advisement, … etc.) | 0.77 | |
Are you willing to show your patients the damage smoking can cause upon general health? | 0.75 | |
Are you willing to advise patients to stop smoking? | 0.75 | |
Are you willing to cooperate actively in anti-tobacco programs on community level? | 0.74 | |
Are you willing to show your patients the damage that smoking can cause upon oral health? | 0.68 | |
Total variance explained by a Factor
| 54.2% | |
Attitude (towards patients’ smoking cessation)
| ||
Cronbach’s α = 0.69 KMO measure: 0.70; Bartlett’s test: p < 0.001
| ||
Items related to Factor 1:
| ||
Smoking prevention should be part of health care personnel’s education | 0.84 | 0.15 |
Health care personnel should get special training to help patients willing to quit smoking | 0.83 | 0.14 |
It is a dentist’s responsibility and duty to try to get patients to quit smoking | 0.62 | 0.21 |
My knowledge and skills are sufficient to guide patients who want to quit smoking | 0.56 | −0.06 |
Items related to Factor 2:
| ||
The main obstacle for quitting smoking is insufficient information about cessation methods | 0.08 | 0.79 |
The main obstacle for quitting smoking for patients is insufficient information about risks of smoking | 0.06 | 0.71 |
Patients need mainly practical tips on how to quit smoking | 0.03 | 0.66 |
Support from a health professional is needed to quit smoking | 0.18 | 0.50 |
Total variance explained by a Factor
| 26.5% | 23.8% |
Differences in Lithuanian and international students’ knowledge of and attitudes toward smoking
Discriminating variables | Group means | Wilks’ Lambda | F | p | Standardized canonical discriminant function coefficients | Structure coefficients | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lithuanian | International | ||||||
Knowledge and attitude factors:
| |||||||
Harmfulness (of smoking) | −0.03 | 0.18 | 0.994 | 3.74 | 0.054 | −0.015 | 0.250 |
Addiction (to smoking) | −0.06 | 0.34 | 0.978 | 13.58 | <0.001 | 0.520 | 0.476 |
Willingness (to patients’ smoking cessation) | −0.04 | 0.18 | 0.994 | 3.86 | 0.050 | −0.031 | 0.254 |
“Dentist’s knowledge and skills” | −0.09 | 0.51 | 0.951 | 31.17 | <0.001 | 0.733 | 0.721 |
“Help patients” | 0.01 | −0.02 | 1.000 | 0.05 | 0.824 | −0.116 | −0.029 |
Adjusting variables:
| |||||||
Age (% of 23+ year olds) | 33.7 | 33.7 | 1.000 | 0.00 | 0.988 | 0.214 | 0.002 |
Gender (% of female) | 72.4 | 72.4 | 1.000 | 0.00 | 0.991 | −0.176 | 0.001 |
Study phase (% of clinical students) | 58.9 | 42.6 | 0.985 | 9.01 | 0.003 | −0.585 | −0.388 |
Smoking (% of smokers) | 27.7 | 31.6 | 0.999 | 0.61 | 0.612 | 0.050 | 0.101 |
Functions at Group Centroids | −0.14 | 0.73 | 59.87 | <0.001 |
Discriminating variables | B | p | OR | 95% CI for OR | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lower | Upper | ||||
Knowledge and attitude factors (continuous variables):
| |||||
Harmfulness (of smoking) | −0.02 | 0.901 | 0.98 | 0.74 | 1.31 |
Addiction (to smoking) | 0.47 | 0.001 | 1.60 | 1.20 | 2.13 |
Willingness (to patients’ smoking cessation) | −0.04 | 0.768 | 0.96 | 0.75 | 1.24 |
“Dentist’s knowledge and skills” | 0.76 | <0.001 | 2.14 | 1.59 | 2.88 |
“Help patients” | −0.12 | 0.331 | 0.89 | 0.70 | 1.13 |
Adjusting (categorical) variables
b
:
| |||||
Age (≤ 22-year olds) | 0.41 | 0.176 | 1.50 | 0.83 | 2.70 |
Gender (male) | −0.33 | 0.245 | 0.72 | 0.41 | 1.26 |
Study phase (pre-clinical) | −1.04 | <0.001 | 0.35 | 0.20 | 0.62 |
Smoking (non-smokers) | 0.01 | 0.972 | 1.01 | 0.59 | 1.73 |