Smoking Prevalences of All Grades from Oldest Medical School in Turkey and Attitudes of Medical Students as a Potential Role Model

Abstract

Abstract Background: Medical students are candidates for counseling tobacco addicts after graduation. In contrast, they have high rates of tobacco smoking. Aims: Therefore, we aimed to determine the prevalence and dynamics of tobacco smoking among medical students from all grades and to determine its relationship with sociodemographic factors and content of medical education in order to formulate effective tobacco control measures. Methods: A questionnaire prepared in cooperation with the 'World Health Organization' was applied as online to 697 medical students in 2020 as a randomized cross-sectional study covering all grades of the medical school. Tobacco Control lectures in school curriculum were also examined. Results: While 3.3% of the students smoked when they just started the school, smoking prevalence reached a peak value of 31% in the grade-2 and decreased to 23% in the grade-6. Of the 135 smokers, 43% smoked their first cigarette during their medical education. “Having smoker best friends” was the most important factor in starting smoking (OR:14.89, p<0.001). Of smokers 59.3% (n=80) want to quit smoking. Only 20.7% of students who tried to quit smoking received professional help. The smoking risk was 12.5-fold higher in students who tried to use hookahs than never tried (p<0.001). The students who are expected to receive sufficient quantity and quality education, took only 1-hour lecture on tobacco control in the first two years of school. Conclusion: Increased smoking rates indicate that psychosocial supporting mechanisms and tobacco control lectures should be developed to prevent students from starting smoking during the undergraduate medical education period.