European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of nicotine usage among medical and paramedical students at Alrayan medical colleges at Al Madinah Munawara and assess the association between nicotine usage and socio-economic factors, smoking contacts, reasons for smoking, and attempts to quit. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional survey in which an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was used to survey the nicotine usage habits of medical and paramedical students at Alrayan medical collages medical college at Al Madinah Munawara January 2022. Results: Upon our study with a total of 313 participants, 7%(23) refused to be participating in the survey by saying (no) while 93%(290) agreed to be participating. The participant's gender was 34% female and 66%, male. Almost half of the participants had an experiment with cigarette smoking. The mean age of starting cigarette smoking is 16 years old or older (49% of smoking students). Smokeless tobacco product usage is prevalent among students as 20% are using them. Health warnings on cigarette packages are very useful as they led 60% of the students to think about quitting smoking or not starting smoking. The main group which provides help or advice for smokers to quit smoking is friends while the least is the professionals such as doctors. Conclusion: Cigarette smoking is highly prevalent among medical and paramedical students at Alrayan medical College. Electronic cigarettes or also known as vape-pens, hookah-pens, and electronic hookahs (e-hookahs) are incredibly known among students as 66% of them know them. Close contact advice and health considerations are important reasons for not smoking, quitting, or attempting to quit. These findings can be of help in designing future intervention strategies