Sana Abbas, Beenish Abbas, Faisal Nawaz Khan, Hafiz Rabi-ul Ehsan, Ahsan Malik, Sadia Munir Malik.
Smoking Cessation Advice “The Best Time to Quit Smoking was the Day you Started, the Second Best Time to Quit is Today”.
Pak Armed Forces Med J Jan ;72(S-2):S311-15.

Objective: To decide the mindfulness and competency of dental and clinical experts in offering smoking discontinuance guidance. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Tertiary Care Teaching Institute,, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from Oct 2019 to Feb 2020. Methodology: A pilot study carried out at 15-20 participants for questionnaire validation and reviewed by independent experts for face validity. A final questionnaire comprised of ten multiple-choice questions in addition to demographic profile. The minimum sample size required for the study was 261, where the national prevalence of smoking was 21.6%. Results: A total of 550 participants participated in the study and data were extracted from their responses. There were 335 (61.0%) males and 215 (39.0%) females in the study group, with a mean age of 32.4 ± 4.3 and the age range 25 – 44 years. Among total respondents, 380 (69%) were qualified dental and medical practitioners whereas 170(31%) were medical and dental students. Only (40%) respondents were confident in rendering cessation advice whereas (60%) were not. Only (15.5%) participants declared that they received formal training to counsel for quitting smoking. Among the total 234 (100%) males were confident in giving in advice whereas none of the females were sure enough p value <0.001. Conclusion: Despite smoking is of immense concern regarding Public Health, Medical and dental professionals are not proficient enough in smoking cessation counselling. A major fraction of mortality and morbidity is attributable to it; therefore, importance is to be enlightened as a preventable cause of death

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