| Abstract: | OBJECTIVE: Smoking is a serious problem that has a devastating impact on health. Theobjective of this study was to describe the prevalence of and factors influencingsmoking among medical and non-medical students in Tbilisi, Georgia, as well as todetermine whether medical education has an impact on smoking. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out at Tbilisi State Medical University andTbilisi State University, both of which are located in Tbilisi, Georgia. A totalof 400 4th-year students (200 students at each university) were asked to completestandardized questionnaires. RESULTS: Of the sample as a whole, 48.75% were identified as smokers and 51.25% wereidentified as nonsmokers. The mean age was 20.24 years among smokers and 20.26years among nonsmokers. Of the medical students, 49.5% were smokers, as were 48.0%of the non-medical students. The male-to-female ratio in the study population was0.9:1.1. Smoking was found to have a strong relationship with gender, malesaccounting for 65% of all smokers. Of the smokers, 56.9% stated that they wouldlike to quit smoking (for health or financial reasons). Of the medical students,59.5% expressed a willingness to quit smoking, as did 54.2% of the non-medicalstudents. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to improve smoking education for undergraduate students. Specialattention should be given to the inclusion of anti-smoking education inundergraduate curricula, as well as to the implementation of smoking preventioncampaigns at institutions of higher education. However, such measures will beeffective only if tobacco control policies are strictly enforced on the nationallevel as well. |
