الفهرس 
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Abstract
Summary & Conclusion
World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced (1). About 19.8% of adults in the United States currently smoke. The Arab Republic of Egypt has the largest population of tobacco users in the Arab region, suggesting that it also faces the greatest health and economic consequences from tobacco in the region (26). In Egypt, nearly 40% of male adults and almost 0.5% of female adults currently smoking some form of tobacco (27).
It kills more than five million people a year and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths. Without urgent action, the death could rise to more than eight million by 2030. More than 80% of smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest. Tobacco users who die prematurely deprive their families of income, raise the cost of health care and hinder economic development (1) (33).
Family physicians have a key role in counseling their patients on smoking cessation strategies, they are the first point of medical contact for most patients, and they come into contact with a large number of smokers (10). They are well suited to offer effective counseling to people. Because family physicians provide integrated care across time and in concern with co-existing conditions. They can play a key role in improving the quality of care for patients including effective smoking counseling (97).
The present study was cross sectional analytic study, to determine the family physician’s knowledge, attitude and practice regarding smoking cessation counseling. The study was carried out in Family Medicine Department affiliated to Suez Canal University Hospitals. It included all family physicians under training in (Diploma, Master degree and Fellowship) working in Family Medicine Practice Centers affiliated to Suez Canal University Hospitals (75 family physician). Their age ranged between 25 and 41 years (mean = 29.5 ± 3.8), their experience in work range from 1-15 years (average 4 years ± 3.2). With a female predominance (77.3%), (34.7%) of physicians were having master degree, (50.7%) of physicians working in urban areas, about (94.7%) of participants were non-smokers. while, (38.7%) participants in this study see 1-5 smoker patients daily.
In the present study, nearly (60%) have their information about smoking cessation counseling from post-graduate source, also, more than half of the participants (57.3%) did not have any training on smoking–cessation approaches. While, most of the participants (88%) in this study stated that they need more knowledge and training in smoking cessation.
It was found that most of the participants (54.7%) in this study not passed knowledge on the health risks of smoking and methods of smoking cessation counseling, majority (93.3%) of the studied family physicians have favorable attitude regarding role modeling of health professionals on smoking cessation. While, more than half (54.7%) of the studied family physicians have inappropriate smoking-cessation counseling practice.
The highest percentage of physicians’ barriers focused on patient unreadiness to stop smoking (62.7%), then lack of training (32%), while, training courses was the main recommendation (53.3%) of the family physician for improvement of smoking cessation counseling practice at family practice centers level.
It was obvious that, there was statistical significance between knowledge score and socio-demographic characteristics such as age (p=.039) and qualification (p=.04). There is no statistical significance (P >0.05) between attitude score and all socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, qualification, practice location, smoking status, number of smoker patients seen per week. Again, there is no statistical significance (P >0.05) between practice score and their socio-demographic characteristics.
Also, it was found a statistical significance between perception of family physicians regarding their competency in smoking cessation counseling and their training. The difference was highly significant (P <0.01). There was no statistical significance between the physicians’ knowledge score or attitude score on smoking and their willingness to counsel patients to stop smoking (P >0.05).
• This study concluded that, there are areas of improvement that might be a stimulus to design a tailored educational intervention in order to improve the family physicians’ knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking cessation counseling.