Prevalence of and factors associated with daily smoking among Inner Mongolia medical students in China: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

Jiang Bian,Maolin Du,Zhiyue Liu,Yuki Eshita,Juan Sun,Yancun Fan

doi:10.1186/1747-597x-7-20

Abstract

BackgroundTo date, no study on smoking behavior of medical students in Inner Mongolia has been reported. The aim of the present study was to determine the 1-month prevalence of and factors associated with daily smoking among medical students in Inner Mongolia of China, to assist interventions designed to reduce the smoking behavior of medical college students in this region.MethodsDuring December 2010 and January 2011 a cross-sectional survey was conducted among medical students at the Inner Mongolia Medical College using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of three sections: students’ basic information, attitude on smoking behavior, and smoking status of the student daily smokers. Students who smoked every day in the last 30 days were regarded as daily smokers. Factors associated with smoking were identified using binary logistic regression analysis.ResultsA total of 6044 valid surveys were returned. The overall prevalence of daily smoking was 9.8% while the prevalence of daily smoking among males and females were 29.4% and 1.7%, respectively. Males in the Faculty of Medicine Information Management had the highest daily smoking rate (48.9%). Logistic regression models found that the main factors associated with daily smoking among male medical students were highest year of study (OR = 3.62; CI: 1.18–11.05); attitude towards smoking behavior Do not care about people smoking around you (OR = 2.75; CI: 2.08–3.64); and Smoking is harmful to their health (OR = 4.40; CI: 2.21–8.75). The main factor associated with daily smoking among female medical students was attitude towards smoking behavior Eliminate smoking on campus (OR = 0.11; CI: 0.06–0.23). Both for male and female medical students, there was no association between ethnicity and cigarette daily smoking. In regard to smoking status, more than 60% of daily smokers began smoking in high school, 61.3% smoked less than 5 cigarettes per day, 62.9% of the daily smokers’ families opposed their smoking behavior, and after an hour of not smoking 74.6% daily smokers did not feel uncomfortable.ConclusionsAntismoking education should be further promoted in Inner Mongolia medical students, with consideration given to the factors associated with daily smoking behavior found in the present study.

Highlights

To date, no study on smoking behavior of medical students in Inner Mongolia has been reported
Participant characteristics A total of 6047 students completed the questionnaire with 3 students failing to include basic information because the 3 students were informal students of the Inner Mongolia Medical College
With regard to the two attitudes (1) and (2), female medical students who answered yes were less likely to be a daily smoker. Both for male and female medical students, there was no association between ethnicity and cigarette daily smoking

Summary

Introduction

No study on smoking behavior of medical students in Inner Mongolia has been reported. The aim of the present study was to determine the 1-month prevalence of and factors associated with daily smoking among medical students in Inner Mongolia of China, to assist interventions designed to reduce the smoking behavior of medical college students in this region. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that an estimated 1.3 billion people in the world smoke [1] and that 47.5% of men smoke compared to 10.3% of women [2]. The World Health Organization has estimated that there are 320 million smokers in China [7] and that tobacco-related diseases currently kill 1 million Chinese smokers each year [7].

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