Study on the awareness of pharmacy staff in Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun Ipoh towards smoking issue / Raja Sharulnizam Raja Shaharom, Mohd Afzainizam Adnan and Siti Nadirah Mustafa

BACKGROUND Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death. As we know, smoking can cause a lot of diseases such as heart disease, chronic bronchitis disease, stroke and so on. We therefore assessed the pharmacy staffs itself who face many patients with these types of diseases almost everyday whether they aware or not about this smoking-related issue.
METHODS We randomly assigned 58 pharmacy staffs which include Pharmacists, Pharmacist Assistants, Pharmacist Assistant Trainees, and also Attendants. We collected the data by using a survey questionnaire form. The respondents had been asked for their opinions about some issues related to smoking.
RESULTS Most of the respondents said that the most cause of death before the age of 50 in Malaysia is road accident (48.3%). But, the gap between those who said road accident and smoking was only four persons. Respondents' level of education more and less affect the answer. Compare to males, females were more mind if smokers smoke near to them. For both gender, the reasons why did they mind was mostly due to it is bad for their health. 56% of the respondents said the main factor that leads someone to smoke was they were influenced by their friends and also by their family members. Most of the respondents were strongly agreed on the restriction of smoking in working area. Most of them also said that smoking among healthcare professionals will promote unhealthy lifestyle without they realize it.
CONCLUSION Generally, most of the respondents were well aware about the smoking issues. They were aware on the effect of smoking on their health that can lead to death.