Medical students’ perceptions towards e-cigarettes: highlighting the gap in universities’ curricula

Background: Despite use of electronic cigarettes is having an increasingly disturbing proportion, limited attention has been paid to investigate knowledge of healthcare professionals and medical students towards it use, as well as medical curricula do not include specific training on this topic. The aim of the present study was to assess the level of perception, knowledge, and awareness towards electronic cigarettes amongst medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of students of the School of Medicine of University of Barcelona, Spain, between September and December 2017. Results: A total of 159 medical students returned the survey, being the majority female (82.4%) and first year students (79.9%). The 84.7% of interviewees never smoked, the 5.7% were former smoker, and the remaining 9.6% were current smokers. Responses to the questions about knowledge and awareness towards electronic cigarettes highlighted sub-optimal levels throughout the sample. The vast majority (87.4%) answered that ECs can generate addiction. Regarding EC use as smoking cessation method, only the 35.2% indicated ECs to be an effective. None of the collected characteristics was found as significantly associated with students’ level of knowledge and perceptions. Conclusions: As students are nowadays asked to build a complete passport of their medical skills, reviewing existing training programmes is necessary to address correct knowledge about this topic, also by implementing most effective educational paradigms applicable in school of medicine. *Correspondence to: Josep Maria Ramon-Torrell, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Preventive Medicine Department, University Hospital of Bellvitge, Feixa Llarga s/n, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907, Catalonia, Spain, E-mail: jmramon@ub.edu