Correlates of Smoking, Quit Attempts and Attitudes towards Total Smoking Bans at University: Findings from Eleven Faculties in Egypt

Abstract

Objectives: Smoking among university students represents a formidable and global public health challenge. We assessed the associations between socio-demographic, health and wellbeing variables as independent variables, with daily smoking, attempts to quit smoking, and agreement with smoking ban as dependent variables. Methods: A sample of 3258 undergraduate students from eleven faculties at Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt, completed a general health questionnaire. Results: Overall daily or occasional smoking in last three months prior to the survey was about 9% (8% occasional and 1% daily smokers), and smoking was generally more prevalent among males (male=17%, female=0.6%, P < 0.001). After adjustment for confounders, not having normal BMI and having a mother who completed at least bachelor's degree education was positively associated with daily smoking, and conversely, no history of illicit drug use was a protective factor. About 76% of smokers had attempted to quit smoking within the last 12 months prior to the survey. Although a large proportion of students agreed/ strongly agreed with the banning of smoking at university altogether (87%), such agreement was less likely among smokers. Conclusion: There is need for implementation of non-smoking policies on university premises, as well as regular up-to-date information on, and the periodic/yearly monitoring of tobacco use by university students employing standardised data collection instruments and reference periods. In addition, it would be valuable to develop campus-based educational/ awareness campaigns designed to counteract tobacco advertisement directed towards young people in Middle East countries. Otherwise, the danger could be that the current relatively low smoking prevalence among university students may escalate in the future.

Tobacco Use, Beliefs and Risk Awareness in University Students from 24 Low, Middle and Emerging Economy Countries

“…In this large study of university students from 24 low, middle income and emerging economy countries it was found that the prevalence of current tobacco use was largely similar to previous studies among university students in Egypt (El Ansari et al, 2012), Nigeria (Ndom and Adelekan, 1996;Fawibe and Shittu, 2011), Pakistan (Rozi et al, 2007), Thailand (Steptoe et al, 2002), and other developing countries, including Iran (Haghdoost and Moosazadeh, 2013) and Malaysia (Saravanan and Heidhy, 2014). In the study countries of Columbia and Venezuela lower rates of current tobacco use were found as compared to a survey in 2001 (Steptoe et al, 2002).…”

“…In other university student populations in low and middle income countries, current tobacco use or smoking was 9% in Egypt (El Ansari et al, 2012), 33% in India (Mehrotra et al, 2010), 19.8% of male and 2.2% of female students in Iran (Moosazadeh et al, 2013), 14.7% in Malaysia (Saravanan and Heidhy, 2014), 5.7% (males 7.7%, females 2.0%) in Nigeria (Fawibe and Shittu, 2011), among male 24% in Pakistan (Rozi et al, 2007) Poor risk awareness and beliefs about the negative effects of tobacco use may influence the level of consumption of tobacco in different population groups, including young adults (Steptoe et al, 2002;Merdad et al, 2007;Gupta and Kumar, 2014). Several studies among youth found relatively high awareness that smoking tobacco causes serious illness (>90% in 12 of 14 countries) (Gupta and Kumar, 2014).…”

“…Factors associated with current tobacco use have been identified, in part, as follows: i) sociodemographic factors such as being male (Sen and Basu, 2000;Peltzer, 2001;Sinha and Gupta, 2007), older age (Peltzer, 2001) and lower socioeconomic status (Rozi et al, 2007;Mergen et al, 2011;Thakur et al, 2013); ii) beliefs and risk awareness, the importance to health of not smoking was associated with smoking status (non-smoking versus smoking) (Peltzer, 2001;Steptoe et al, 2002); iii) Poor mental health (depression, anxiety) (Halperin et al, 2010;Saravanan and Heidhy, 2014) and substance use, including risky drinking (Halperin et al, 2010;Mergen et al 2011) and illicit drug use (El Ansari et al, 2012); iv) violence experience, including intimate partner violence (Caleyachetty et al, 2014) and reported abuse (Halperin et al, 2010), and v) obesity (El Ansari et al, 2012). The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of tobacco use, beliefs and risk awareness and psychosocial correlates of tobacco use among university students in 24 low, middle and emerging economy countries.…”

Food and Mental Health: Relationship between Food and Perceived Stress and Depressive Symptoms among University Students in the United Kingdom

“…We explored the links between nutritional habits and mental health indicators at seven universities in the United Kingdom. Apart from a few exceptions, while most studies focused on data from one university across several countries or within one country (29,30), less studies examined the same question (associations between mental health indicators and nutrition) across large samples of diverse students at different universities of one nation. This is despite calls that research on nutrition and on the correlation between depression and food consumption should be conducted across diverse student populations (31).…”

Symptoms and Health Complaints and Their Association with Perceived Stress at University: Survey of Students at Eleven Faculties in Egypt

“…In line with other general student health and well-being studies (15,(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23), no monetary or course credit incentives were provided for participation. Each questionnaire included a participant information sheet outlining the research aims/objectives.…”