Knowledge, attitudes and preventive efforts of Malaysian medical students regarding exposure to environmental tobacco and cigarette smoking

A longitudinal study was conducted to determine changes in knowledge, attitudes and preventive efforts of Malaysian medical students concerning cigarette smoking and environmental exposure to tobacco smoke from their first pre-clinical year in medical school until their final clinical year. There were significant improvements in knowledge about cigarette smoking and in knowledge, attitudes and efforts concerning environmental exposure to tobacco smoke. Overall attitudes concerning cigarette smoking did not change over this period. The same pattern was found for male non-smokers. Women improved on all five scales; male smokers improved on none over the 3-year period. Male non-smokers had better scores on these scales than male smokers in both beginning and ending years. Women excelled in comparison to male non-smokers on smoking attitudes in the pre-clinical year and on all scales except preventive efforts in the final clinical year.Although medical students experienced no changes in the amount of pressures not to smoke from family and friends, there was a significant increase in the amount of prohibition on smoking from their teachers. Male non-smokers alone accounted for this increase. Women experienced more pressure than men not to smoke from their teachers in both years, but the male smokers and non-smokers did not differ in teacher pressure for either year.