Tobacco smoking among higher medical education students is a real threat today

Abstract

Annotation. With the help of Google forms, a questionnaire was conducted among applicants of medical institutions of higher education regarding the prevalence, duration, and preferences of types of alternative tobacco products, namely: National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsya (VNMU), Lviv National Medical University named after D. Halytskyi (LNMU), Bukovyna State Medical University (BDMU), Kharkiv National Medical University (KHNMU), National Medical University named after O. O. Bogomolets (NMU), among the five medical higher education institutions of Ukraine. The purpose of the study is to identify the prevalence, duration, causes of smoking, and health threats as consequences of smoking among students of medical institutions of higher education in Ukraine. A content analysis of scientific sources of foreign scientists from many countries of the world regarding the spread of tobacco smoking among student youth in European countries was conducted based on PubMed I Google Scholar databases for the period 2008-2022. Based on the results of the questionnaire, it was determined and compared with the questionnaire of 2019. It was established that among the applicants of medical institutions of higher education I-VI courses – 69.8% (61.2% – in 2019) of students do not smoke, and 30.2% (38.8% – 2019) smoke. Out of them, 76.9% are feminine and 23.1% are masculine. The average age of starting smoking among respondents of medical institutions of higher education was 16 to 18 years old – 21.0%. They use such a bad habit to relieve stress, which accounts for 30.0% of women and 43.6% of men. Cigarettes are preferred by 40.0% of women and 20.0% of men; to cigarettes – by 25.0% of women and 23.3% of men (in 2019 – 48.6%); IQOS – 17.0% of persons of the female article and 6.7% of the persons of the male article; electronic cigarettes – 33.3% of men and 10.0% of women (in 2019 – 10.9%); hookah tobacco – 10.0% among men and 8.0% among women (21.5% in 2019). The solution to the problem of smoking among students of medical institutions of higher education can only be systematic educational measures of anti-nicotine propaganda.