Loading...
Smoking among healthcare professionals in Australia : A scoping review
Salehin, Masudus Lam, Louisa Rahman, Aziz
Salehin, Masudus
Lam, Louisa
Rahman, Aziz
Abstract
Studies showed healthcare professionals who are non-smokers are more likely to deliver smoking cessation advice to their patients than those who are smokers. However, healthcare professionals continue to smoke across the globe. This scoping review assessed the available data on the prevalence and predictors of smoking among healthcare professionals in Australia. Following the PRISMA extension for the Scoping Review checklist, a systematic literature search was conducted on CINAHL, MEDLINE, APA PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library in August 2024. Articles published between 1990 and 2024 were considered, and finally, 26 papers met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Australian healthcare professionals showed varying smoking prevalence. For physicians, it was 10.2% in 1990 to 7.4% in 2013; among dentists, 6% in 1993 to 4.9% in 2004; and among nurses, 21.7% in 1991 and 10.3% during 2014–15. The highest smoking rates were observed among Aboriginal health workers (AHWs): 63.6% in 1995 to 24.6% in 2021. Age was a positive predictor for smoking among nurses, and so was male gender among dentists, physicians, and nurses; other predictors included area of specialty, lower emotional wellbeing, etc. This review highlighted a declining trend in smoking among healthcare professionals in Australia; however, it was not proportionate among the different health specialties.
Keywords
smoking, prevalence, predictors, health professionals, Australia
Date
2025
Type
Journal article
Journal
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Book
Volume
22
Issue
1
Page Range
1-33
Article Number
Article 113
ACU Department
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).