The sociological survey of tobacco consumption and nicotine-containing production in student milieu

The tobacco smoking continues to be a significant public health problem, as it is one of the major risk factors of development of neoplastic, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The particular attention is attracted to prevalence of consumption of tobacco and new nicotine-containing products in medical students community. The article presents results of anonymous sociological survey of student youth of the Medical University as part of study of habit of consuming tobacco or nicotine-containing products. It is established that medical students have high commitment to smoking (50.7%). However, the most popular product among respondents was electronic cigarettes. The majority of respondents smoke less than 10 cigarettes per day and have very weak nicotine addiction according to the Fagerstrom test. The average age of smoking initiation among medical students was 16.523.7 years. According to respondents, among main reasons for starting smoking were pleasure, sense of adulthood, anxiety, and stress. The users of electronic cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery systems and electronic non-nicotine delivery system more often than smokers of traditional cigarettes openly smoke with their families and less often tried to quit smoking. The health worker advised to quit smoking only in 19.650% of cases. Among respondents, 32.9% plan to quit smoking traditional cigarettes within next six months. 66.7% and 18.5% of respondents do not intend to give up using electronic nicotine delivery systems and electronic cigarettes in next six months.