Evaluation of Smoking and Other Tobacco Product Habits of Ege University Faculty of Health Sciences Students: A cross-sectional Survey Study

Abstract

In this study,we aimed to evaluate the habits of all tobacco products,age of onset of smoking,duration of use,knowledge and awareness about tobacco products' harm,level of addiction,health problems and desire to quit of Ege University Faculty of Health Sciences students. A cross-sectional,face-to-face survey with students studying in all classes of Ege University Faculty of Health Sciences students in 2018-2019 academic year.Of the 1137 (72.1% female) students,64.2% were never used tobacco products. Among the responders,14% of them were regular users,11.2% of occasional users,10.7% of them were quitters at the ages of 16-20(77%). The type of tobacco product was mostly filtered cigarettes (73.6%), 14.1% unfiltered cigarettes,8.2% hookah,3.1% cigar-pipe,1.0% electronic cigarettes. 60.9% of the students reported that they wanted to quit and 52.3% of them tried at least once.Nicotine addiction levels of students were very low (67.7%) and low (17.7%),and the dependency rate of male students was found to be significantly higher(p = 0.002).It was observed that 22.4% of them were moderate to severely depressed. The students stated that exposure to tobacco smoke was most frequently in cafes and secondly in the school canteens.85.4% of our students have very low/low level nicotine addiction and male students have a significantly higher dependency rate than female students.As a very important result, it is thought that all universities should be pioneer institutions to protect our youth from the epidemic of tobacco use with the goal of 'Smoke-Free University'.