Tobacco Smoking and Attitude of Youth: A survey of University Students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to detect a smoking pattern in youth (university student) in Peshawar. The survey aimed at smoking pattern in the university students in Peshawar, was conducted on 275 students with 195 (70.9%) males and 80(29.1%) females. The total number of smokers was 92(33.5%) consisting of 49(31.8%) medical, 21(38.8%) engineering and 22(32.8%) students from other departments. Smoking was more prevalent among males (36%) than females (11.3%) (P<0.05) and among self financed (44.4 to 44.8%) than regular (19.2 to 36.1%) students (P<0.05). Majority of the students whether smokers (96.3%), (p<0.05) or non smokers (92.4%), (p<0.05), were aware of even the passive smoking hazards. A significant number of smokers 36.6% (p<0.05) and 41.5% (P<0.05) would not favour a ban on smoking at public places and a ban on smoking ads respectively. Moreover, a signficant number of male (27.4%) and female (36.3%)smokers started smoking as a school child, smokers were inspired from firends (64%). The urge for smoking was in freind's company (33%), when tense (33%), sitting idle (20%) and over worked (14%). Themost popular smoking tool was "filter-tipped Cigarette" (66.7%). Other substance abuse, found in smokers only included marjuana (50%), alcohol (43.8%) and other substances (6.2%). Thus smoking is a serious problem in educated youth, and urgent measures need to be taken to change their attitude towards smoking.