Attitudes and knowledge of third year medical students in Croatia about tobacco control strategies: results of the Global

Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of death worldwide. Every year, nearly 5 million people die from tobacco-related illnesses.1 In its preamble, the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) emphasizes the special contribution and vital importance of participation of health professional bodies and academic and healthcare institutions in national and international tobacco control efforts.2 Health authorities, rather than the legislature, are largely responsible for designing, regulating and implementing specific tobacco control policies.3 Non-government organizations, medical societies, public health advocates and other entities can provide advocacy and technical assistance in many areas, including science and policy formulation. Medical students have an important role to play in these efforts, as they represent the future health authorities; this puts them in a position to influence social norms regarding smoking.4 However, few data regarding the knowledge and attitudes of medical students about general and specific tobacco control policies and legislations are available. As such, this study investigated third year medical students ’ attitudes towards banning smoking and other tobacco control measures, and their knowledge of general and specific tobacco control policies in Croatia and in medical schools and clinics. These results represent part of the Croatian pilot survey of the Global Health Professionals Survey (GHPS), which was conducted by the European Medical Students ’ Association i