| Summary: | Introduction
Entering University is an important developmental milestone
that might be associated with cigarette smoking. The aim of this study was
to identify the subgroups of university students on the basis of cigarette
smoking patterns, and to assess the role of familial support and religious
beliefs on membership in specific subgroups.
Methods
This cross-sectional study was performed in 2016 using multistage
random sampling among students of Bushehr University (n=977).
Anonymous, structured questionnaires were distributed to the students
in each selected class. Cigarette smoking prevalence was assessed in three
time intervals: lifetime, last year, and last month. All of the analyses were
performed using PROC LCA in the SAS software.
Results
The lifetime, last-year and last-month prevalence of cigarette smoking
was 13.7%, 10.0% and 7.0%, respectively. In this study, the prevalence of
passive smoking was relatively high (15.3%) among students. Four latent
classes were identified: 1) non-smoker 58.2%, 2) passive smoker 31.3%,
3) moderate smoker 3.4%, and 4) heavy smoker 7.1%. The prevalence of
cigarette smoking of close friends was: 73% among passive smokers, 81% for
heavy smokers and 63% for moderate smokers. Being male (OR=4.42, 95%
CI; 2.90–6.74) and a higher score of religious beliefs (OR=0.97, p<0.001
95% CI; 0.96–0.98) were associated with the heavy smoker class.
Conclusions
Among students at Bushehr University in Iran, 10.5% were either
moderate or heavy smokers in 2016. These results point out the critical
importance of designing specific preventive interventional programs for
university students. Higher level of religiosity may serve as a preventive
factor in engaging in cigarette smoking.
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