SMOKING HABITS

 

Studies in Iran show that about 26% of the Iranian men and 3.6% of the women participating in the study are current smokers (1). The majority of participants (92.3%) reported that they were aware of the hazards of smoking. Unfortunately, the prevalence of smoking among college students is higher than in the general population in Iran. reported that the prevalence of smoking in residents of Tehran, the capital of Iran, is 12% (2). The most important preventive factor for cigarette smoking was religious beliefs (69.1%).

Conclusions:

Although the prevalence of regular smokers among health professions students of MUMS was lower than general populations, this level is still alarming and points to the rapid growth of cigarette use, especially among female students. The questionnaires were distributed to all 1100 students residing in the dormitories of MUMS. On the other hand, a multi-country survey in the developing countries revealed a smoking prevalence rate of 11%, 6.7%, 10.6%, 17.8%, and 17.4% among medical students of Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, respectively (9). Nazary et al. The significance level was set at P < 0.05. The effects of various independent variables on the prevalence rate of cigarette smoking were investigated, and odds ratios were calculated. Starting and continuing smoking was significantly correlated with the family cigarette consumption habits. The inclusion criteria for the analysis were (a) student status, (b) age between 18 and 28 years, (c) consent to participate in the survey, and (d) no missing data for the tobacco-related variables. The third part included the questions regarding cigarette advertisements and prohibitions, awareness of cigarette negative effects and reasons, smoking cessation, and the reaction of participants in places where there are people who smoke.

By the WHO guidelines, the students were categorized as daily smokers, occasional smokers, former smokers, or nonsmokers. To assess the independent effect of individual factors, multiple logistic regression analysis was used and odds ratio (OR) with 95% CIs were computed.

Results

Among all 936 students included in the study, 44.6% were male and 55.4% were female (Table 1). Descriptive data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0. Ethical approval was granted by MUMS Ethics Committee before the data collection (ethical approval code: 87685). The preliminary studies highlight the need for performing more investigations on the prevalence and determinants of tobacco use and developing effective cessation interventions for health professional students.

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Objectives

The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of active cigarette smoking, socio-demographic data, knowledge, attitudes about cigarette use, exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, the attitude of willingness to stop smoking, etc. Although many types of research are conducted in different countries, there have been few types of research on cigarette smoking in Iran. The authors reported that 16.79% of males and 0.69% of females were smokers. among health professional students in MUMS, Mashhad, Iran.

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Patients and Methods

The current cross-sectional study was conducted on the students of six faculties of MUMS (dentistry, medicine, midwifery and nursing, pharmacy, paramedical sciences, and public health) in autumn (October and November) 2008. The most common reason to start smoking was friends (24.9%) and the most important reason to continue smoking was personal life distress (17.6%). The overall prevalence of cigarette smoking was 9.8% with significant differences in prevalence rates by gender, 17.6% among males, and 4.2% among females. Prevalence of smoking did not significantly change according to the year of study: the first year, 7%; second year, 8%; third year,8.3%; fourth year, 17%; fifth year, 11%; sixth year, 20%; seventh and over, 6.7% (χ2 3.49; P > 0.05). The study proposal and instruments were approved by the MUMS research committee. In some studies on medical students in developed countries, the smoking rate was 16-21% (5-8). A standard self-administered questionnaire adapted from the Global Health Professional Survey (GHPS), designed for health professionals by the WHO and the Canadian Public Health Association was used in this study (12). Daily smokers were defined as those who smoked at least one cigarette per day for at least one month before completing the questionnaire; occasional smokers were defined as those who did not smoke daily; former smokers (ex-smokers) were defined as those who previously had a daily smoking habit for a continuous period of six months but had given up smoking at least one month before the completion of the questionnaire, and nonsmokers were defined as those who had never smoked or who had been smoking for less than one month. In another study, Ahmadi et al. Also, the mean age of starting cigarettes was 19.6 ± 2.5 and 18.9 ± 2.4 years for male and female students, respectively.

. A significant difference regarding awareness of smoking hazards was observed between smokers and non-smokers. The high prevalence of smoking (42.5%) among university students was also reported by other investigators in the Middle-East countries (4).

Cigarette use among medical students is of particular concern because medically educated persons play a leading role in the development of overall public health policy and the prevention of tobacco use in society. The second part of the questionnaire included the data on attitudes towards using or not using cigarettes, age of the smoking onset, reasons to start smoking, reasons to continue smoking, number of cigarettes smoked per day, duration of smoking, places most commonly smoked in, and the number of quit attempts. The internship students showed the highest prevalence of smoking (17%) among the medical students (11). found that among the students of Tehran University, 35.4% of men and 12.6% of women are smokers (3). Informed consent was obtained from each participant included in the study and the study protocol conformed to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Helsinki Declaration. With a cross-sectional population-based study, Fotouhi et al. A total of 936 students met these criteria and completed the information (about 85%). Cigarette Smoking Behavior and the Related Factors Among the Students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran

Ehsan Taheri,1 Ahmad Ghorbani,2 Maryam Salehi,3,4 and Hamid Reza Sadeghnia1,2,5,*

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Abstract

Background:

Tobacco consumption is the second major cause of death and the fourth most common risk factor for diseases, worldwide. The overall prevalence of cigarette smoking was 9.8% with significant differences in prevalence by gender; 17.6% among males and 4.2% among females (χ2 70.57; P < 0.001). Medical schools should work harder to tackle this phenomenon and address it more efficiently in their curricula.

Keywords: Cigarette, Health, Smoking, Students

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Background

According to the World Health Organization reports (WHO), 22% of the world's population aged over 15 years are smokers and approximately six million people die from tobacco use or exposure to tobacco smoke. The Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis. On the other hand, Jafari et al. Before distributing the questionnaires, the students were informed that the information collected would be kept anonymous and that participation was completely voluntary.

The questionnaire was designed in three parts; the first part consisted of socio-demographic data (age, sex, health professional discipline, marital status, and ethnicity), smoking status of their father/mother/other family members, daily exposure to cigarette smoking, and participant smoking status (current smokers including daily smokers and occasional smokers and former smokers). Epidemiologic studies have traced the use of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit substances among medical students and physicians.

Objectives:

The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of cigarette smoking and the related factors among the students of medical sciences in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Patients and Methods:

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 946 health professional students in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS, Iran) in autumn 2008. assessed the prevalence of cigarette smoking among students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. No missing values were reported by the investigators. A standard self-administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic data, participant smoking status, family and peer smoking, attitudes and beliefs about smoking, awareness of cigarette negative effects, and reasons for smoking cessation was used in the current study.

Results:

Among the students, 18.3% reported having ever tried or experienced cigarette smoking. studied the prevalence of smoking among male students in Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, and found a smoking rate of 14.4% (10).