Attitude toward smoking and its relationship with loneliness and socialcapital among medical sciences students of Tabriz

Background: Smoking cigarette is a major health problem that specifically affects the youth andadolescent population. As a psychosocial determinant of health, social capital and loneliness caninfluence health attitudes, behaviors and smoking cigarette. The aim of this study is to investigatethe attitude toward smoking and its relationship with feelings of loneliness and social capitalamong medical students in Tabriz.Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in ۲۰۱۹ on ۵۳۸ students of thefaculties of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Samples were selected by proportionalsampling method. Students’ attitudes toward smoking, social capital and loneliness were assessedusing the scale of cigarette smoking attitude (CSA), the social capital questionnaire (SCQ) and therevised version of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA-R) Loneliness questionnaire.Finally, the data were analyzed by SPSS software (version ۲۲), using descriptive statistics(frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and analytical statistics (Pearson test andmultivariate linear regression).Results: The mean scores of total attitude toward smoking, loneliness and social capital were۴۸.۶۴ of ۹۶, ۴۱.۴۲ of ۸۰, and ۱۰۵.۱۹ of ۱۸۰, respectively. Also, a negative and significantcorrelation was found between attitude toward smoking and social capital (r: -۰.۱۵, P<۰.۰۰۱).Moreover, a positive and significant correlation was found between attitude toward smoking andfeeling of loneliness (r: ۰.۲۸, P<۰.۰۰۱).Conclusion: The findings of the present study showed that students had a negative attitude towardsmoking. Also, the level of social capital and loneliness of students was moderate. Medicalsciences students as future healthcare providers, who are expected to take an important role inreducing smoking rates in the community, should be supported to develop appropriate attitudestowards smoking. Promoting positive social capital and reducing feeling of loneliness amonguniversity students can improve their attitudes towards smoking.

کلیدواژه ها:

Smoking Cigarette ، Loneliness ، Social Capital ، Students