Influencing factors of university students’ smoking status according to gender

Abstract

Background and aim Despite the strict anti-tobacco policies, smoking is still a major preventable public health problem in Turkey. We aimed to evaluate the smoking status of university students and the influencing factors of their smoking according to both gender. Methods This cross-sectional study conducted between Mach 2017 and June 2017 at an university located in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. Among all students who had been reached and agreed to participate the study were included. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information. Results Totally 2505 students' data were evaluated with a mean age of 20.8+/-2.5 and female dominance (58.9%). Overall current smoking rate of the students was 27.9%; 15.3% among females and 46.0% among males, additionally, the rate of ever smokers was 60.7%; 51.9% among females, 73.4% among males (p<0.05). The smoking rate of students who have at least one smoker family member (mother or father or sibling) was 61.4%, 63.3% among females and 58.6% among males (p<0.05) and also 40.1% of the students were exposed to tobacco in their residence. Among current smokers (n:699), compared to males, female students had lower mean Fagerstrom nicotine dependence level and higher mean age of beginning smoking (p<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis of male students and female students seperately revealed that; studying in a 2 year faculty, having at least one smoker family member, having smoker close friends and presence of alcohol consumption were positively associated with current smoking for both gender. Conclusions This study showed that overall smoking rate of male students are higher than female students. Hovewer the influencing factors on their smoking status were similar.