What Is Behind Smoking Among Pharmacy Students: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study From Turkey

Abstract

This study, performed in two phases, compared the smoking status of first- and last-year pharmacy students and identified underlying factors of smoking using both “quantitative” and “qualitative” research techniques. The quantitative phase was a cross-sectional study with 207 students (of these, 102 were first-year and 105 were last-year students). The mean age at which first-year students tried tobacco/tobacco products was 14.1 ± 3.2 and for last-year students, 16.0 ± 2.4. The students completed an 18-item questionnaire at the end of the spring semester in May 2004. Chi-square and t-test analyses were used for statistical comparisons. Furthermore, focus group discussion techniques were used to find out the underlying factors of smoking in the second phase.

Keywords:

• focus group discussion (FGD)
• pharmacy students
• quantitative study
• qualitative study
• smoking
• Turkey

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Selen Yegenoglu

Selen Yegenoglu, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Pharmacy Management Department at Hacettepe University. Her doctorate thesis was on “The Role of the Pharmacists in Substance Abuse Prevention.” She was a post-doctoral student at Temple University School of Pharmacy (USA) in 2001–2002. She is a member of the “Smoke-Free Hacettepe Group.” Her major area of research is all the issues related to social pharmacy.

Dilek Aslan

Dilek Aslan, M.D., M.Sci., is an Assistant Professor of Public Health working at Hacettepe University in Turkey. One of her major study areas is tobacco control since 2002. In 2003, she completed her fellowship program which was supported by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Fogarty International Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Research Training Program (Tw05807-02). She is a member of the “Smoke-Free Hacettepe Group.”

Sefik Evren Erdener

Sefik Evren Erdener, is a phase II student at the Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. He is a participant of the “Smoke-Free Hacettepe Group” since 2004 and in that manner is actively involved in tobacco prevention tasks that are carried throughout the campus.

Aylin Acar

Aylin Acar is an M.Sci. candidate. She graduated from Hacettepe University, School of Pharmacy in 2002. In 2003 she joined to the Department of Pharmacy Management at Hacettepe University School of Pharmacy as a research assistant.

Nazmi Bilir

Nazmi Bilir, M.D., Professor, is the Director of the Public Health Institute at Hacettepe University. He has been working on tobacco control for many years. He contributed to the national regulations regarding tobacco control inside the country. He is the academic consultant for the “Smoke-Free Hacettepe Group.