Medical Trainees’ Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Electronic Cigarettes and Hookah

Background: Use of e-cigarettes and hookah has increased worldwide. Medical trainees will soon be practicing physicians, managing smoking, influencing perception of risks and impacting regulation policies.Aims: To investigate medical trainees’ knowledge and attitudes towards vaping and hookah.Methods: Online survey of medical students and residents in Brazil (BR), United States (US) and India(IN), recruited via e-mails and social media, using convenience sampling.Results: We enrolled 6487 students (BR=2768, US=2523, IN=1169) and 1095 residents (BR=328, US =544, IN=197). 2033 were senior students or residents and were included in this analysis of knowledge and attitudes. 59,4% believed vaping poses similar or higher health risks than smoking, while for 27.3% risks are lower and 12.9% did not know. Half of participants agreed or neither agreed or disagreed that vaping could be used for smoking cessation. 63,1% believed smoking hookah poses similar or higher risks than cigarettes, while for 14.6% risks are lower and 16.8% did not know. Only 45.7% and 40.4% remembered attending a class on vaping and hookah in medical school. Their most common sources of information were social media (54.5%), Google(40.7%), friends/relatives (40.2%), and newspapers/magazines(38.8%). Only 26.8% read scientific articles as a source of information.Conclusions: Respiratory societies of all 3 countries are against vaping for smoking cessation, and e-cigarettes are banned in Brazil and India. Yet, a large proportion of senior trainees have a biased perception of vaping and hookah risks, with many endorsing vaping to quit smoking. If not addressed, this issue may risk years of efforts against the renormalization of smoking.FootnotesCite this article as Eur Respir J 2022; 60: Suppl. 66, 325.This article was presented at the 2022 ERS International Congress, in session “-”.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only)