Hasan Khalaf Abed
Introduction: Tobacco is a preventable cause of morbidity and mortality across the globe. Low and middle income countries (LMICs) are the most severely affected. Shisha has been shown to be associated with a wide range of detrimental health effects.
Objectives: Measure the prevalence of shisha smoking among medical students at College of Medicine and College of Dentistry-Baghdad University; identify the characteristics of Shisha smokers that have numerous public health and clinical implications.
Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 654 students. A questionnaire was used to gather the necessary information and filled by the study participants themselves. It included questions to gather information on certain socio–demographic variables, family of the participants, and believes about smoking. Information about shisha smoking, medical history and habits of the participants and their parents were gathered.
Results: The Prevalence of shisha smoking was 12.1%; 57.5% of them were smoking for more than three years, 76.2% preferred café for smoking; 87.5% preferred friends to smoke with. The factors that significantly associated with prevalence of shisha smoking were (gender, address, marital status, living condition, presence of private work, parents smoking history, and belief about which type of smoking is more harmful).
Conclusion: Shisha smoking habit is increasing during the last few years and becoming a community acceptable behavior, especially among college students. There was a significant positive effect for male gender, being divorced or widowed, living alone and outside of the capital, and having own job on smoking prevalence among students. Also parent's positive histories of tobacco smoking and students beliefs about shisha and cigarette harm were significantly associated with the use of shisha.
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