Awareness of blindness and other smoking-related diseases and its impact on motivation for smoking cessation in eye patients

作者：Handa S^*; Woo J H; Wagle A M; Htoon H M; Eong K G Au

来源：Eye, 2011, 25(9): 1170-1176.

DOI：10.1038/eye.2011.143

• awareness
• blindness
• smoking cessation
• tobacco

Purpose Cigarette smoking is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The association between smoking and eye diseases is less widely recognised relative to other better-known smoking-related conditions. This study aims to assess the awareness and fear of known smoking-related diseases among current smokers attending an ophthalmology outpatient clinic and to evaluate their relative impact on the likelihood of smoking cessation.
Patients and methods A cross-sectional survey using a structured interview of randomly selected current smokers attending an eye clinic was conducted. The knowledge of six smoking-related diseases (lung cancer, heart attack, stroke, blindness, other cancers, and other lung diseases) was assessed. The fear of smoking-related conditions and the relative impact of each smoking-related condition on the smoker's motivation to quit smoking were evaluated.
Results Out of 200 current smokers aged from 14 to 83 years, only 42.5% (85 patients) were aware that smoking causes blindness. Smokers' perception of harm caused by smoking was 6.53 +/- 3.21 (mean +/- SD) on a visual analogue scale of 0 to 10. Patients placed blindness as the second most important motivating factor to quit smoking immediately, within 1 year and 5 years, after lung cancer.
Conclusion The awareness of the risk of blindness from smoking was lowest compared with five other smoking-related diseases among eye patients who smoke. However, blindness remains a key motivational factor in smoking cessation and hence should be emphasised as an important negative health consequence of smoking in public health education and anti-smoking campaigns. Eye (2011) 25, 1170-1176; doi:10.1038/eye.2011.143; published online 24 June 2011

• 出版日期2011-9