Popular water pipe smoking, medical sciences students' awareness, perceptions, and motivations

Abstract

This study was done to investigate popularity, awareness, perceptions, and motivations regarding water pipe smoking (WPS) among medical sciences students in 2017. This cross sectional study was done among 385 medical sciences student in 2017.The systematic random sampling was used to recruit subjects. Multidimensional questionnaire (demographic characteristics, awareness, perceptions, action, and water pipe motivators) was used. t-test, ANOVA, X2, and logistic regression was used to analyze the data by SPSS. The mean ages of participants were 22±2.64 and 89% were male. The majority of the study sample was from health school. Most participants reported having smoked before. Family entertainment was found to be the most common motivator for WPS. The second one was to be fun. WPS use was significantly associated with age (odds ratio [OR], 0.17; 95% Confidence Interval [CI], 0.04-0.61); awareness (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.35-1.78); and perception (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.65-0.78). Results show that WPS is very popular among Iranian youth. In designing public health programs, policy makers should consider the motivators for inclination to WPS. Intervention should focus on addressing students' perception and awareness regarding WPS.