Local medical students lack proper knowledge about the risks associated with smoking and how to help people quit the habit, a survey released by the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.
The survey, conducted last year among university juniors studying medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing, found that although 83.5 percent of the students learned in school about the health risks of smoking, only 35.2 percent are aware of the effects of second-hand smoke.
Furthermore, 28 percent were under the false impression that “light” cigarettes are less dangerous to human health, according to the poll conducted by the department’s Bureau of Health Promotion.
The survey also found that medical school students are being poorly trained to help patients quit smoking, Bureau of Health Promotion Director-Ggeneral Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said.
Only 11.6 percent of the respondents had attended formal courses on how to help people quit, she said.
“This is a wake-up call for us,” said Lai Chi-wan (賴其萬), chairman of the Ministry of Education’s Medical Education Committee.
Lai said he was previously not aware of the issue, but would present the problem to other members of the committee and devise a comprehensive smoking education plan for medical students.
Doctors should serve as role models for their patients and have a social responsibility to take care of their patients’ health, as well as their own, he said.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
RSS