A survey conducted in 11 countries found that nearly 80% of doctors mistakenly believe nicotine causes lung cancer, which undermines efforts to convince 1 billion smokers to stop.
A survey conducted in 11 countries found that nearly 80% of doctors mistakenly believe nicotine causes lung cancer, which undermines efforts to convince one billion smokers to stop.
The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World provided financial support for Sermo to conduct a survey of 15 000 doctors across 11 nations, including China, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Africa, the UK, and the US.
The survey’s goal is to generate practical insights that will hasten the end of smoking. Sermo is a leader in providing practical insights for healthcare professionals and an independent platform.
The doctors who participated in the survey are full-time, licenced to practise medicine, have at least two years of experience, spend at least half of their time providing direct patient care, and see at least 20 adult patients each month. They work in a variety of specialties, including psychiatry, internal medicine, cardiology, pulmonology, and oncology.
The survey found that a sizable proportion of physicians around the world incorrectly attribute nicotine’s harmful effects on health to smoking. They believe that nicotine causes atherosclerosis in 78% of cases, lung cancer in 77%, COPD in 76%, birth defects in 72%, head/neck gastric cancers in 71%, and bladder cancer in 69% of cases.
When specifically asked, 78% of doctors at least somewhat agreed that the majority of harm from smoking—in adult patients—comes from combustion rather than nicotine itself. However, an average of 73% of doctors at least somewhat concur that nicotine causes lung, bladder, and head/neck/gastric cancer.
Nearly all of the physicians in the 11 countries surveyed expressed interest in learning about smoking cessation and reduction. Many people, though, tend to concentrate more on general cessation than on particular alternatives to smoking.
The majority of doctors across all nations, ranging from 71% to 94%, concur that helping patients stop smoking should be a top priority. An average of one-fourth of doctors say they have never taken a training course on quitting smoking.
The two most frequent excuses given for not attending training are lack of opportunity and ignorance. At least 80% of doctors worldwide are interested in learning how to cut back or stop smoking, though actual participation isn’t always consistent with reported interest.
Similarly, a vast majority of doctors in Pakistan hold the incorrect belief that nicotine causes cancer. In a survey conducted by Alternative Research Initiative (ARI) in 2022, more than two-thirds of doctors (70%) strongly agreed and 17.9% somewhat agreed with the statement that nicotine causes cancer. Nearly 80% of doctors strongly agreed that smoking causes cardiovascular disease, and 81.6% said it causes COPD.
Similar to this, 61.7% of respondents strongly agreed that smoking causes birth defects. Majority of doctors who had specific smoking cessation training strongly agreed that nicotine contributed to cancer (73.2%), cardiovascular disease (82.1%), birth defects (64.3%) and COPD (89.3%), respectively. Also strongly concurring that nicotine caused cancer (69.4%), cardiovascular disease (79.4%), birth defects (61.2%), and COPD (80.1%) were doctors who had not received any specific training on quitting smoking.