Smoking status of medical students in the English program of a university in Nicosia

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the status of smoking among medical students and related factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the total 566 medical students enrolled in the English program of the Near East University, Faculty of Medicine in Nicosia, Northern Cyprus. A questionnaire of 20 questions was handed out to the students to find out about their smoking status (lifetime and current smoking), and related factors. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0.0. For the analyzed parameters, descriptive statistics were calculated and marginal and cross tables were prepared. The p value accepted as significant was p<0.05. Results: The response rate was 80.6% (456 of 566 students). Lifetime smoking rate was 47.7%, (60.3% of for male students, 35.6% for female students) and current smoking rate was 32.7% (42.4 % for male students, 23.4% for female students); 41.3% of the smokers had started smoking after admission to medical school. Conclusions: The smoking prevalence among medical students was high. Medical education did not seem to be influential on the smoking status among students of the English program of the medical school