Impact of an educational intervention regarding tobacco counseling on dentists and dental students

Abstract

The present study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of dental professionals and students regarding tobacco cessation counseling (TCC) after their participation in a continuing education activity (CEA) entitled "Smoking cessation: How does the dentist participate in this decision?" at the Oral Cancer Seminar: Projeto Maio Vermelho 2021. This study utilized a pre-/post-intervention design, including a pre-intervention questionnaire with 20 close-ended questions, an educational intervention, and a post-intervention questionnaire with nine close-ended questions. Descriptive and statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 25 and GraphPad Prism 8 software. The significance level was set at p = 0.05. A total of 94 participants answered the pre-intervention questionnaire and 52 answered both the pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Most participants reported regularly asking about smoking status (96.8%), providing advice on tobacco risks (96.8%), and offering some counseling to help patients stop smoking (84.0%). Although participants habitually ask about cigarette use, other forms of tobacco consumption are frequently overlooked. Most participants reported never having attended TCC training during their undergraduate studies (67.0%) or after graduation (71.2%). However, 96.2% showed interest in attending TCC training. The perception that motivational counseling by dentists can encourage patients to stop smoking rose from 87.5 to 98.2% (p<0.05) after the educational intervention. In addition, participants’ self-confidence in conducting TCC increased from 8.9% to 23.3% (p<0.01). The brief CEA on TCC showed favorable outcomes, enhancing the perception of dentists and undergraduate dental students regarding the effectiveness of counseling for smoking cessation and boosting their self-confidence in providing tobacco counseling.