Attitudes of Hungarian healthcare professional students to tobacco and alcohol.

Tobacco represents the single most preventable cause of disease and death in the world today. There were an estimated 3 million deaths annually at the end of the 20th century and it has been estimated that this will rise to more than 10 million by 2030. A disproportionate share of the burden of mortality is already being borne in the Russian Federation and the countries of Eastern Europe. For example, some of the highest rates worldwide of cigarette consumption and smoking prevalence are in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Cancer is one of the major tobacco-related causes of disease and death and Hungary has the highest male incidence rates in the world for both oropharyngeal and lung cancer. A consequence of this is that the mortality rate of middle-aged (50-60-year-old) men in Hungary today is higher today than it was in the 1930s, particularly among the lower socioeconomic groups. Of the many different approaches to tobacco cessation and control, advice or intervention by healthcare professionals ranks high in effectiveness; a recent survey indicated that requests from healthcare professionals to quit ranked second in effectiveness after requests by the smoker's own family. If healthcare professionals are to play a role in reducing death and disease from tobacco related cancers it is necessary to assess the attitudes and behaviours among healthcare professional students. Our survey assesses perceptions, behaviour and consequences among university students.