Evaluation of third-hand smoke awareness of healthcare personnel working in a university hospital

This study aimed to determine the third hand smoke (THS) awareness levels and affecting factors of healthcare professionals working in a university hospital and to increase their awareness about THS. The population of the cross-sectional study consists of healthcare professionals at Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University Faculty of Medicine Hospital. The data was collected between 01.01.2023-31.05.2023 using a survey with a total of 57 questions; including 6 questions from the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, 9 questions from the beliefs about thirdhand smoke scale (BATHS) and 42 questions created by the researcher. It was aimed to reach all 1107 healthcare professionals in the institution, and a participation rate of 70,82% was achieved. Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney-U, Kruskal Wallis-H, Post-Hoc, spearman correlation tests were used in our research. 85,6% of the participants have never heard the term of THS. Average score of the participants from the BATHS total was 4,02±0,71; BATHS impact on health subscale was 3,99±0,75; BATHS persistence in the environment subscale was 4,05±0,75. Among the participants, those who had a bachelor's degree (p<0,001), those who did not smoke (p<0,001), those who did not try to quit smoking (p=0,033), those who were disturbed by the cigarette smoke smoked by others in open spaces (p<0,001), and those who banned smoking at home (p=0,006), those who have heard of the term of THS (p<0,001) have higher BATHS scores. When buying or renting a house (p=0,001), when choosing a room in the hotel (p=0,004) asking the previous smoking status; according to taking care; not to be in a previously smoked room (p<0,001), not to be in the same indoor environment with a person who has smoked (p<0,001), not to be in a previously smoked vehicle (p<0,001) BATHS scores have significant difference. Those who stated that they strongly disagreed with the statement "Going out of the house to smoke, protects people living at home from the effects of smoking" (p<0,001), those who always advise smoking patients to quit (p<0,001), those who always warn their patients about THS (p=0,001), those who stated that they strongly agreed with the statement "I think my awareness about THS increased after answering the survey" (p<0,001) had higher BATHS scores. To the question "If you have any suggestion for reducing THS exposure, could you please specify?" they mostly suggested informing, supervision and banning smoking. The majority of healthcare professionals who are at the forefront of the fight against smoking do not know the term of THS. The majority of participants stated that their awareness increased after answering the survey. THS should be included in the education of healthcare professionals.