Smoking prevalence among healthcare workers in Italy, PASSI surveillance system data, 2014-2018

Introduction. Data on smoking among Italian Health Personnel (HP) from PASSI surveillance system from 2014-2018 were analysed.Materials and methods. Among 169,678 working-age respondents, smoking prevalence was estimated among 1,253 Medical Doctors (MDs), 4,840 Non-Medical HP (NMHP), 87,749 Non-HP (NHP) and multivariate analysis was conducted.Results. Current smokers were 23.0% among HP. Smoking prevalence in MDs (16.0%) was significantly lower than those observed in NMHP (25.3%) and NHP (28.6%). A declining trend was detected in all three groups and was more evident among MDs: from 20.8% in 2014 to 11.5% in 2018. Amongst MDs, smoking was significantly associated with male gender (Adjusted Odds Ratio, AdjOR=1.61), younger age (AdjOR=2.00), residing in South (AdjOR=1.71). Among NMHP, smoking prevalence was associated with low economic condition (AdjOR=1.54) and non-university education.Discussion and conclusions. To further reduce smoking in HP, it is necessary to develop specific training courses in educational curricula.