The number of New Zealand doctors smoking continues to decline, but psychiatric nurses still like a puff on their break, a study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal has shown.
Surveys of doctors from 1963 and 1972, and censuses up to 2013, show the number who are smoking is dropping.
Just 2.1% admitted to be regular smokers in 2013, down from 3.5% in 2006 and 5% in 1996.
The highest smokers by specialty were male gynaecologist and obstetricians (6.7%, their female counterparts registered 0%), and female surgeons (5.7%).
Overall, counting both sexes, anaesthetists (1.2%) were the most likely not to smoke.
About 90% of doctors aged 25 to 44 said they had never been regular smokers and 85% of all doctors had never smoked at all.
Nurses were more likely to puff away than their doctor counterparts. Eight percent said they were smokers, and that number rose to 10.8% aged 45-64.
Breaking it down into specialties, psychiatric nurses were over-represented, with 16.8% smoking regularly, compared with occupational health nurses (3.8%) and public health and district nurses (6.3%).
The NZMJ study concludes the overall trend is good and sets an excellent public example.
"The low and declining smoking prevalence among doctors and nurses is encouraging,'' the study in the NZMJ concludes.
"These findings suggest that doctors are now a virtually smokefree population and nurses are well on the way to being the same, and to meet the 2025 Smokefree target.
"Low smoking prevalence among health professionals, particularly doctors and nurses, may be particularly important as these groups are potential role models to the rest of the community for health-related behaviours.''
However, the high number of psychiatric nurses still smoking needed to be addressed, as there seemed to be a "permissive culture'' towards smoking in New Zealand mental healthcare facilities.
