Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking among Medical Iraqi Students

Abstract

The researcher performed this cross sectional study at three different medical colleges in Baghdad during the period June 2005 to June 2006. The aim of this research was to study the prevalence of cigarette smoking among students from different colleges of medicine in Baghdad as well as studying some of the factors associated with smoking habit. The study included 500 medical students, from them, 198 were females and 302 were males. The researchers achieved data collection by using a questionnaire form. The survey dealt with various parameters including age, gender, family member smoking habit and self-reported cause of smoking. This paper reveals that the prevalence of cigarette smoking among medical students is (21%); about 42% of them started smoking at 18-19 years age or their first year of medical school. Although most of them knew that smoking is harmful, they did not wish to quit smoking. The study concluded that almost all smokers were males. There was no association between the smoking habit of family members and the smoking habit of medical students. The most common three causes of cigarette smoking reported by the students were entertainment(22.1%) followed by stress and stress relieves (18.3%) then anxiety & emotional causes (11.5%).The research team did a comparison of the present study with various international studies; and discussed both agreement and disagreements thoroughly.