Development of smoking trends among young people in 2022-2024 in Ukraine

<bold>Introduction:</bold> Smoking is quite a relevant problem nowadays. The number of smokers increases year by year. According to the data of the WHO, more than 14.9% of teenagers aged 13–16 were smokers in Ukraine in 2021. It was almost in 2% higher than in Europe and more than 4% higher than in the world. Among adults, more than 45% were smokers. <bold>Aims:</bold> to study the dynamic of prevalence and trends of smoking among young people in Ukraine in 2022 – 2024. <bold>Methods:</bold> A survey was conducted among 437 young people with an average age of 18–25 years, 319 women (73%) and 117 men (27%). In 2022 were examined 275 respondents (RS) and in 2024 we asked 161 people. The survey was conducted using a custom-created Google Forms questionnaire and distributed through social networks and messengers. <bold>Results:</bold> We discovered that 62 RS (22.5%) were smoking in 2022, and 65 RS (40.1%) in 2024. Based on this analysis, we founded that the proportion of smokers has increased significantly during the last two years (40.1% vs 22.5%). In 2022 e-cigarettes were smoking (25.8%) RS, traditional paper cigarettes were using (19.4%) RS, tobacco heating systems (IQOS, Glo, Lil, etc.) or hookah (17.7%) RS. In 2024 the number of e-cigarettes smokers increased to 52.3%, the number of paper cigarettes users increased to 21.5%. The trend to smoke tobacco heating systems or hookah also increased to 23.1% RS. The most important reasons for smoking in 2024 were stress, environment and poor morale prevailed. <bold>Conclusions:</bold> The study showed an increase in the prevalence of smoking among young people over the past two years. The reasons for such trends were stress and the environment. The most popular among young people were e-cigarettes and tobacco heating systems usage.