PREVALENCE, KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF SHISHA SMOKING AMONG MEDICAL AND DENTAL STUDENTS OF KARACHI, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of shisha smokers among medical and dental students of Karachi and assess their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding shisha, and the effect of discipline (medical/dental) and year of professional education with their responses.

Study design: Cross sectional, observational study.

Subjects and Methods: One thousand two hundred and four students from the six medical/dental colleges of Karachi participated in the study. The present study was conducted during April and May of the year 2OO7. The questionnaire consisted of personal questions like gender, field of study, name, and year of study; smoking habits, frequency and place of smoking, attitude and knowledge about diseases developed due to shisha smoking.  Chi-square test was used to find relationship between independent variables i.e. field of

study (medical/ dental), and year of study (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and final year) with response variables.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 2O.2±1.6 years. Two hundred and seventy three students (22.7%) indicated that they smoke shisha. One hundred and nineteen of the male students (41.2%) and 154 female students (16.8%) indicated positively for shisha smoking. Dental students showed 13% higher prevalence of shisha smoking than medical students (p<O.OOO1). Eighty percent of respondents selected either restaurants or 'shisha bar' for the place of smoking. Sixty four percent of the respondents were influenced by their friends to adopt this habit. Eighty one percent of the respondents admitted that shisha smoking was harmful. Twenty eight percent of the respondents believed an association between shisha smoking and cancer, and about a quarter related it with heart diseases. Thirty eight percent of the shisha smokers were also involved in cigarette smoking.

Conclusions: High prevalence of shisha smoking was observed among medical and dental students. However, most of them had adopted this habit as leisure and for socialization. The awareness about the health hazards due to shisha smoking is needed as  an  intervention  to  extricate  them  from  this  habit.