Prevalence of smoking among medical students and associated factors in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Objective

The goal of this study is to assess medical school students’ smoking rates, levels of addiction, factors influencing tobacco smoking, and attitudes toward tobacco information and bans.

Methods

For this study, a survey was conducted with 709 students studying at medical faculty in the years 2021–2022. In the survey, questions including demographic information, Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), and information on tobacco smoking and bans were asked.

Results

The smoking rate of medical students was 34.7% for males, 14.1% for females, and 24% overall. The mean age of onset of tobacco smoking was 17.3 ± 2.3, and the FTND mean was 3.1 ± 2.6. 12.1% of all participants smoked hookah. Considering the factors that significantly affect smoking with binary logistic regression modeling; male sex odds ratio [OR] 2.9 95% [Confidence Interval (CI):1.8–4.8], 4th grade OR:5.7 (CI:2.3–13.9), alcohol use OR:1.8 (CI:1.1–3.0), high school degree of the mother OR:3.4 (CI:0.9-13.3), smoking-related illness in the family OR:2.4 (CI:1.2–4.7) increased the risk of smoking (p < .001).

Conclusions

The tobacco smoking rate in medical faculties in Turkey is still high, similar to the society. There is a need for curriculum changes related to tobacco in medical education. Training involving addiction treatments should be included in medical school.

KEYWORDS:

• Smoking prevalence
• medical students
• risk factors
• smoking rate

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the students who participated in this study. The authors sincerely thank all medical students which take the survey.

Authors contribution

FF designed the study; FF, SD, and SH collected the data; FF and MT analyzed the data; FF searched the literature and wrote the manuscript; FF edited and revised the manuscript according to the journal’s instructions; FF edited and controlled the final version of the manuscript. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Gaziantep University Medical Ethics Committee (No: S-2019-65)

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.