• Health

Sumber Media : The jakarta Post

By. Elly Burhaini Faizal

The Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) is considering putting the smoking status of patients on medical records.The IDI said that recording the smoking habits of patients will help doctors investigating health problems. The move wil] also make it easier for health researchers to accumulate data on smoking-related problems in the country.Newly-elected IDI chairman Zaenal Abidin said over the weekend that IDI was also thinking about wider roles for doctors and other health professionals in tobacco control efforts.”Weve seen that recording a patients smoking status can bring profound benefits in tobacco control efforts,” he said during a press conference.

Including smoking status on patients medical records is one of ninerecommendations the IDI made in a document called Gerakan Dokter Selamatkan Indonesia (Doctors Movement to Save Indonesia) during the 1 associations conference in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Nov. 22.At the conference, doctors also agreed to make themselves better role models in the fight against smoking.The IDI has also urged the government to provide support services for those who want to quit smoking as an integral part of the health care system.”It is important to provide support programs so that doctors can quit smoking themselves and help their patients quit. Many doctors here are smokers, so they already need therapy,” said Zaenal.In Indonesia, only the pulmonary wards of hospitals record the smoking status of patients.

Smoking and tobacco-related illnesses are one of the most serious health problems in the country.Kartono Mohamad of the Tobacco Control Support Center praised the plan saying that it would give doctors complete information on whether their patients were themselves smokers or being exposed to secondhand smoke.”In collecting the data, doctors will ask their patients if they smoke and whether they are exposed to secondhand smoke at home. Clear evidence about a patients tobacco status can help doctors in their prognoses,” he said.Kartono added that the doctor should not be the only party to record tobacco use. All health practitioners,including midwives, should record the smoking status of their patients in their medical records to ascertain, for example, whether birth defects in babies are caused by tobacco use, Kartono added.

The 2011 Global Adult Tobacco Survey, jointly conducted by the World Health Organization and the Health Ministry, revealed that the prevalence of male smokers in Indonesia stands at 67.4 percent, making it the country with the 16lh worst tobacco problem in the world.The figure means that 60 million or 36 percent of the total Indonesian population are active smokers, the highest number of smokers in Southeast Asia. National Commission of Tobacco Control chairwoman Mia Hanafiah said tobacco control efforts in the country still have a long way to go. “We see more support as anti-smoking groups in the country continue to grow in numbers, but die tobacco industry is fighting back strongly,” Mia said.