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Croatia needs more cooperation and education to fight smoking, activate family doctors' potential, and improve regulatio
๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท Croatia /Health & Science

Croatia needs more cooperation and education to fight smoking, activate family doctors' potential, and improve regulation

From Veฤernji List · () Croatian

Translated from Croatian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • Croatia faces significant challenges in combating smoking, with nearly 40% of adults being smokers.
  • Experts at a conference identified key issues including insufficient support systems for smokers, inadequate regulation of tobacco products, and a lack of public education.
  • Family doctors are initiating educational programs to better assist patients in quitting smoking and to track the use of new nicotine products.

Croatia is grappling with smoking as a major public health challenge, with nearly 40% of its adult population being smokers, placing the country third in the EU for smoking rates.

As family doctors and the first point of contact with patients, we want to play a greater role in combating the most common risk factors for chronic diseases we encounter daily, including smoking.

โ€” Family doctorExpressing the desire for increased involvement in smoking cessation efforts.

A recent conference, "Smoking Addiction โ€“ What is Croatia Doing?", brought together healthcare professionals, pharmacists, and academics to discuss solutions. Participants highlighted critical obstacles: a lack of accessible support for smokers wanting to quit, insufficient regulation and oversight of all tobacco and nicotine products, and a failure to recognize nicotine addiction within the healthcare system. A significant gap in public education also hinders progress.

What we can do is educate family medicine teams, pharmacists, and our patients about all the products we have on the market.

โ€” Family doctorHighlighting the educational role of primary care physicians.

Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), noted that while the institute has various projects, including educational programs and addiction prevention services, there is still room for new measures. Marija Saviฤ‡ from HZJZ presented methods for combating smoking, emphasizing the need to evaluate and certify the most effective programs.

When we talk about nicotine addiction, besides cigarettes, we also have a number of new products, and it is extremely important for us to record users of all these products, which is not yet enabled through patient health records.

โ€” Family doctorEmphasizing the need to track usage of various nicotine products.

Family doctors are stepping up, launching initiatives to educate their colleagues on how to approach smokers and implement scientifically proven cessation methods. A new guide for family doctors on discussing smoking cessation with patients has been developed. Preliminary research on carbon monoxide levels in smokers and users of new smokeless products is also underway. "As family doctors and the first point of contact with patients, we want to play a greater role in combating the most common risk factors for chronic diseases we encounter daily, including smoking," stated one family doctor. They aim to educate their teams, pharmacists, and patients about all available products on the market, stressing the importance of tracking users of all nicotine products, which is not yet possible through patient health records.

Without such records, we cannot monitor their impact on health.

โ€” Family doctorExplaining the importance of data collection for health monitoring.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Veฤernji List in Croatian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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