Knowledge and attitudes of health professional students on smoking cessation techniques in Turkey

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Smoking among adolescents and young adults is epidemic. This study aims to evaluate the rate of smoking and the knowledge and attitudes on smoking cessation techniques among healthprofession students in a University. METHODS This cross sectional study was conducted among 338 (70.4%) first 3-year students of the Faculty of Medicine (FM) and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation (SPTR) in Pamukkale University during January 2010. RESULTS A total of 338 students participated in the study; 177(52.4%) from the FM and 161 (47.6%) from SPTR. Of all smokers (20.8%), 14.9% were current smokers. The prevalance of current cigarette smoking was higher among male students (22.9%) than female students (6.1%) (p<0.001). The prevalance of current cigarette smoking increased significantly with age (p<0.001) and grade (p=0.029). Students who had smokers in their family (19.3%) were more likely to smoke than others (10.1%) (p=0.001). 36 students (76.6%) have tried to quit smoking and 29 (60.4%) wanted to quit smoking in these days. 45.5% showed middle and higher nicotine dependence. 56.4% found useful to consider an on-campus smoking cessation clinic and 57.2% found the idea of peer-assisted smoking cessation useful. CONCLUSIONS On campus smoking cessation clinics, and besides physicians and psychologists, peerassisted smoking cessations approach may be useful in the effort of smoking cessation of university students.