Knowledge, Perception Regarding the Effect of Tobacco Use and Cessation Practices: A Case Study from College of Health Technology Students, Lagos State, Nigeria

The study is the investigation of knowledge, perception regarding the effect of tobacco use and cessation practices among students of Lagos state college of health technology in Yaba mainland local government area. Snowball sampling techniques selected by Lagos State, Nigeria, and 200 respondents. A structured and validated questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study design. Demographic data were analyed using frequencies and percentages in tabular form to test demographic data of the respondents with chi-square (x2) analysis was used to test the hypothesis at 0.005 level of significance. The result revealed that majority of the students knows that tobacco use has harmful effects on its users, while few have a perception about tobacco use cessation techniques and majority have the positive perception that role modeling of health professionals on cessation practices plays an important role in patients quitting tobacco use. Based on these findings, some recommendations were suggested among which are the urgent need of Government to enhance the synergy between the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education so as to include cessation techniques in the training curricula of health professionals as well as the development of improved and effective enforcement and compliance on cigarette ban in public places.