Knowledge and attitude of medical students towards cigarette smoking inTabriz University of Medical Sciences

Background: Cigarette smoking is one of the important public health challenges throughout theworld. All over, the popularity of cigarette smoking is significant among university students,containing health-related fields’ students, especially medical students. Being the role model in thefuture, the excessive prevalence of smoking among medical students is serious problem.Specifically, medical students as future physicians are supposed to act an important role insmoking cessation programs. The purpose of the current study was to assess the knowledge andattitudes of medical students towards cigarette smoking in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.Methods: The population of this cross-sectional study included all medical students at TabrizUniversity of Medical Sciences, from January to May, ۲۰۲۱. We applied Marzbans and KarkhanehQuestionnaire, a reliable and valid Persian questionnaire to study Knowledge and attitude ofmedical students towards cigarette smoking. It has ۳۰ items, ۱۵ items were related to knowledgeand the remaining ۱۵ items were related to attitude aspects. First the online questionnaires werefilled by the students, and in the next step we calculated the total score of knowledge and attitudes۰ to ۱۵ and ۱۵ to ۷۵ points, respectively. Then we compared the mean score of knowledge andattitudes toward smoking. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS۱۶ software.Results: Totally, ۲۱۰ medical students participated in this study. More than half of them weremale (۵۶.۱%). The mean age (SD) of participants was ۲۱.۹۱(۵.۱۱) years. The average scores ofknowledge and attitude (SD) towards smoking were ۹.۲۱(۳.۴۵) and ۲۶.۱۳ (۳.۱۸), respectively.There was a significant relationship between the mean score of students' knowledge and attitudestoward smoking and gender, marital status and educational level (P-value<۰.۰۵). Females, marriedand the last year medical students had more knowledge and appropriate attitudes toward smoking.Conclusion: Not only the knowledge of medical students toward smoking were low, but also theattitudes were not appropriate at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. So, it is essential toconduct educational programs at the universities in order to improve knowledge and attitudetowards smoking.

کلیدواژه ها:

Knowledge ، Attitude ، Cigarette Smoking ، Medical Students.