Background and Objectives: Cigarette smoking among the youth population has increased significantly in developing countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, no extant literature assesses the prevalence of tobacco use, nor identifies factors associated with smoking. This study determined the prevalence of cigarette smoking among a specific cohort of students and assessed factors related to tobacco use in this population. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1200 students at all faculties of Banja Luka University. Data were collected from questionnaires adapted from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) and the Global Health Professional Student Survey (GHPSS) standardized questionnaires and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s χ2 test, and logistic regression. Results: When the prevalence of cigarette smoking within the last thirty days was recorded, we found that 34.1% of students smoked within this period. Nearly three-quarters (74.9%) of the student population had smoked or experimented with cigarette smoking. However, medical students were 27.2% less likely to smoke than their counterparts from other faculties. Overall, 87% of all students were aware of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking, 79% were aware of the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, and 65% reported that it was difficult to quit. Increased spending of personal money was associated with a higher probability of smoking, while exposure to secondhand smoke increased the odds of smoking by 62%. Conclusion: Policies, strategies, and action plans should be introduced in order to reduce the prevalence of smoking among university students and to create a smoke-free environment at the various universities involved.
Based on the premise that literature can provide an accurate reflection of social and geopolitical conditions, and thus also a reflection of the process of 'othering', its attendant practices, and the status of the 'other' in real social contexts, the paper inquires into the concept of otherness by analysing a representative selection of literary works written in English. Despite the frequency with which the concepts of otherness and the 'other' occur in psychoanalytic, postcolonial and contemporary political theories, the author of the paper has noticed that there is little extensive research about how they have been incorporated into literature. The contribution of the paper would therefore be an in-depth interpretation of a number of Anglophone works written in different epochs, which could provide an insight into diachronic changes of the status of the 'other', various manifestations of the process of 'othering' and its accompanying practices, the factors affecting the perception of the 'other', and the changing relationship towards the 'other' from colonial beginnings to date. The aim is to expand the knowledge about the concept of otherness. The basic methods used in the research are interpretative analysis, generalisation and induction. Having compiled a comprehensive bibliography of theoretical and literary texts and pinpointed the key issues of the dissertation, the author selected representative literary works for each segment of the paper and interpreted them in the light of the existing psychoanalytic and postcolonial theories. The works in question are: William Shakespeare's Tempest, Daniel Defoe's Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner and Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Toni Morrison's Bluest Eye, E. M. Forster's Passage to India, Salman Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence, Anita Desai's Bye-bye Black Bird, Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss, J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace and Waiting for the Barbarians, and Hanif Kureishi's four short stories.As noted above, the paper draws on psychoanalytic and postcolonial theories.The dichotomy the 'other'/the 'Other', introduced by Jacques Lacan and later
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.