Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking and Its Associated Risk Factors among Students of Hawassa University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, 2016

Background: Cigarette smoking is a global health risk, causing increased health-care costs and loss of productivity among a number of age groups. Tobacco use in Africa, including Ethiopia, has attracted little attention, including among students. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of cigarette smoking and its associated risk factors among students of Hawassa University College of Medicine and Health Science. Methods: An institutional based cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of cigarette smoking and its associated risk factors among students of Hawassa University College of Medicine and Health Science. The team used systematic random sampling by determining the k value jumping some of the students from source population based on k intervals. The data was cleaned, coded and analyzed using SPSS version 20 and STATA version 12. Multiple logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with cigarette smoking. Presence of confounders and interaction effects was investigated by computing relative changes on s coefficients at a cut-off point of 15%. Results and conclusion: The prevalence of cigarette smoking among students was 20.6% (95%CI: 0.61, 0.25). Cigarette smoking was significantly associated with students year of education (AOR=6.02; 95% CI: 2.09, 7.35), ever chewing Khat (AOR=20.99; 95% CI: 1.84, 4.3), age at start of smoking (AOR=2.21; 95% CI: 1.23, 6.12), ever drink alcohol (AOR=4.99; 95% CI: 1.02, 2.43) and receiving information about harmful effects of smoking cigarettes (AOR=4.99; 95% CI: 1.02, 2.43). Year of education, health education information, ever chewing Khat, ever drinking alcohol and age at start of smoking were significant factors for cigarette smoking. We recommend that students >20 years old be targeted with health education campaign focused on harmful effects of smoking tobacco.