Tobacco Induced Diseases (Oct 2018)
Smoking status of medical students at Ege University: A cross-sectional survey of 1040 students in 2018
Abstract
Introduction We aimed to determine the smoking prevalence and related factors among 1,2,3 and 6th grade students at Ege University Faculty of Medicine. Methods This cross-sectional survey was a part of a multi-centre study throughout Turkey and the data were collected in May-June 2018. The target group of this study was 1537 medical students studying in the first, second, third and sixth grades. Questionnaires were applied to 1040 students (67.7%) who agreed to participate in the study. The coverage was 94.5%, 78.6%, 57.4%, 36.7% for the first, second, third and sixth grades, respectively. Results The overall prevalence of smoking was 18.4%, with 18.1%, 18.6%, 17.0% and 22.1% in the first, second, third and sixth grades, respectively. The mean age at starting to smoke was 16.5±2.3 yrs (min.8, max.23). Current smoking was more prevalent in males compared to females (24.3% vs. 11.7%, p<0.001). Among current smokers, 27.4% had started smoking during medical school. The most common reasons for starting to smoke were the effects of close friends (37.1%) and stress (19.2%). Current smokers spend 201±139 Turkish Liras (min.0, max.800) monthly for cigarettes. Among smokers, 60.4% have tried to quit smoking at least once, and 78% of them thought of smoking cessation. Among e-cigarette users, 93.6% were ever-smokers. According to univariate analyses; male students, students whose parents, partners or best friends were ever-smokers, students living alone and the ones who have smoked hookah at least once have significantly higher prevalence of being ever-smokers compared to their counter-parts. In multivariate analyses; having the hookah use (OR:12.4), living alone at home (OR:3.4), partner (OR:2.3) or best friend (OR:1.9) smoking, and were found to be independent risk factors related to being an ever-smoker. Conclusions The present study shows that the prevalence of smoking in especially male medical students was high (24.3%) in Turkey, and nearly one third of the students started smoking during medical faculty. Therefore, there is a need to include intensive education programs regarding smoking-related health problems and smoking cessation at an early stage in the medical curriculum.
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