Reasons and dependency level to smoking, and readiness to quit among health care professionals: Basis for hospital-based cessation program Ramos, Janus P. 6

Thesis (M.A.) Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 2013;A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate School of Health Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Nursing 56

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ABSTRACT: Filipino healthcare professionals are known to be locally and globally competent and caring. However, cigarette marketing competencies also has raised its effort that it lured the health sector of its addictive content, increasing its prevalent use among the healthcare professionals. This study was designed to determine the different reasons and level of dependency to smoking among health care professionals, and their readiness to quit. Specifically, this study sough to answer the questions on how important the following reasons are for the respondents to smoke in terms of situation, handling, pleasure, relaxation, craving, and habit. It is the desire of this study to discover the level of dependency of the respondents to smoking and its extent of readiness to quit smoking the respondents. Significance of relationship with each variable was also tested, (1) between the reasons and the dependency level of respondents in smoking (2) between the dependency level and the readiness to quit; and (3) between the reasons to smoking and readiness to quit among the respondents. The results of this study will be the basis of development of hospital-based smoking cessation program for healthcare professionals. A survey involving 112 healthcare professionals from Mary Johnston Hospital, Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center, and other private health institutions in Metro Manila were gathered from January to February 2013 using the Smoker's Profile Test. Nicotine dependence and readiness to quit as an adapted tool from Dr. Fagerstrom and Dr. Horn. Data were analyzed using frequency and percentage distribution, mean score and weighted mean, and Pearson r correlation, using the SPSS Statistical Package. The study revealed that among the six reasons to smoke, relaxation is the most important. It is good to note that more than half (66.69%) of the healthcare professionals have very low dependence. In response to their readiness to quit, 78.57% (f=88) are well-prepared to quit in six months, while 23.43% (f=24) need more time to prepare quitting. The reasons and dependency level have significant relationship with each other except for relaxation which accepted the null hypothesis. Dependency level has significant relationship when it comes to readiness and they are negatively correlated. Among the six reasons, habit is the only one which has significant relationship with readiness to quit. The findings recommend psychological interventions to address this gap in knowledge. That is, addressing the relaxation or tension reduction of health care professionals in the workplace.

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