25% of HSE general support workers are smokers

Health Minister James Reilly will need to address the smoking habits of a section health workers before a smoke-free Ireland can be achieved.

This follows a study showing that 25% of general support workers in the Health Service Executive are smokers.

The high rate of smokers in the group is in stark contrast to the 4.4% smoking rate amongst front-line medical and dental staff.

The research, which is carried out by the National Tobacco Office at the Dept of Health, the Health Intelligence, Health, and Wellbeing Directorate at the HSE and the University of Limerick, is contained in the new edition of the Irish Medical Journal.

The authors state that “targeted interventions are required to support General Support and other patient and client care staff in smoking cessation”.

More than 1,000 HSE staff were selected for the study and according to the study’s authors, they found an overall smoking rate of 15% of the 70% who responded to the survey.

The report states: “With a smoking prevalence of 15%, HSE staff are less likely to smoke than the population aged 18 to 65 with a rate of 24.2%, but general support staff smoke just as much as the working population and do not seem to enjoy any protective benefit against smoking from working in the health sector.

“Whilst the smoking prevalence estimate of 4.4% among medical/dental staff is lower than the 21.7% observed among non-consultant hospital doctors in 2006, it is close to the estimate of 5% among all medical staff in the same year.

“It is re-assuring that nurses and health and social care staff — which includes psychologists, dietitians and social workers — exhibit a relatively low smoking prevalence of 11%.”

The study found the estimated smoking rate of 11% amongst nursing staff is less than previous estimates of 21% and 22.5%. “This difference may be explained by successful cessation, this audit found that 32.5% of nursing staff were ex-smokers,” the report said.

“The smoking status of healthcare workers is important because they are seen as a model for patients and clients of the health services.”

The report also found that there is a strong trend for healthcare workers to quit — for every current worker who smokes, almost two have quit.