Nicotine Use Frequency and Addiction among Medical Students

Abstract

Objective: Evaluating the rate of smoking and factors associated with nicotine addiction in university students will provide targetoriented interventions for students. For this reason, this study aims to measure the frequency of nicotine use and nicotine dependence and related factors among medical students. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, an online questionnaire about nicotine use frequency and dependence was sent to a state university’s medical students via mobile phones. No sample size was calculated, instead, the study aimed to reach a total of 1522 medical students. The Fagerström Nicotine Dependence Test was used to measure nicotine dependence levels. p< .05 was considered as statistically significance level. Results: Of the students, 79.3% (n=306) were non-smokers, 14.7% (n=57) were smokers and 6.0% (n=23) of the students were ex-smokers. Male students, students not living with their families, students with a higher income, and those having at least one smoking parent had statistically significantly higher smoking rates (p< .05). According to the Fagerström Test, of the smoking students, 63.2% (n=36) had low nicotine dependency, 33.3% (n=19) had moderate nicotine dependency, and 3.5% (n=2) showed high nicotine dependency. Conclusion: Smoking rates were high in medical students, despite the medical knowledge related the negative health outcomes. And students had high level of nicotine dependence. Further studies are needed about the strategies on the prevention of smoking among medical students.