Tobacco Use and Associated Factors in Medical Students

Many studies indicate that one of the leading preventable causes of premature death, disease and disability around the world is Tobacco use. Unfortunately, adolescents and young adults of colleges are often targeted of marketing by the tobacco industry. The aim of this study was to assess the relative frequency of tobacco use and associated factors in medical students.

This cross-sectional study has done among medical students in 2014 - 2015. Totally, 284 students from 4 levels (basic, extern, intern and residents) were selected by random sampling from each category. We used a checklist for collecting demographic information that was distributed among participants by a trained interviewer. SPSS-11.5 software was used for data analysis andsignificance level was considered < 0.05.

Among 284 medical students, 17 (6%) smoked cigarette and 3 (1.05%) used illicit substance. All of the users were male, 15 (88%) of which were single. 1 (1.4 %) of the basic level students, 6 (6.9 %) of the externs, 9 (14.8 %) of the Interns and 1(1.6 %) of the residents used cigarette but the differences among these groups were not significant (P = 0.36). Generally, 13 (76.5%) of the users resided in dormitory and the others lived in parental home, which shows a significant difference among these groups (P = 0.01).The logistic regression indicated stage level was positively associated with cigarette use (P < 0.007).

In this study, we evaluated how several environmental factors may influence illicit substance and tobacco use. We found an association between living in a dormitory and smoking cigarette, so it is an important factor to be considered in program planning for new students who entered into this environment.