Waterpipe, Cigarette, and Tobacco Products Smoking Among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Tobacco and waterpipe use among university students is a growing public health concern in our country and globally, as it can lead to serious health consequences. The aim of this study is to examine the percentage of tobacco and tobacco products use among university students and the relationship between the percentage of use and their demographic characteristics. A cross-sectional study was conducted using social and electronic media platforms by delivering a pre-formed and validated online questionnaire among university students between January and February 2021 with the voluntary participation of 1282 students from Uskudar University. Among these, 1254 participants who gave correct answers to the control questions asked in the study were used for evaluation. The collected data were then analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Statistics 22 software package to evaluate various parameters of the respondents. The questionnaire was designed to collect data about students' sociodemographic characteristics and tobacco habits. The percentage of tobacco use among Uskudar University students was 28% (cigarettes, 23%; waterpipe, 3.5%; and cigarettes and waterpipe, 11.2%). It was found that 52.8% of males and 76.8% of females did not use any tobacco products. The mean age of students was 20.81 +/- 3.01 years. The highest percentage of tobacco and tobacco products users was in the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences with 28.7% and the highest percentage of those who did not use tobacco or any tobacco products was in the Faculty of Medicine with 81.8%. According to the results of this study, the use of tobacco and tobacco products was higher in males. At the same time, it was determined that smoking was more common than waterpipe use.