Smoking awareness and habits among dental students at the Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia... what can we do to help?

Background and Objectives:
Tobacco epidemic is affecting the whole world. By 2025 the numbers of smokers are expected to increase from 1.1 billion adults to 1.6 billion. Students are a vulnerable and an important target for tobacco industry, despite the fact that Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation is a competence in their curriculum they must master before graduating.
Material and methods:
500 questionnaires were distributed to students attending undergraduate dental school at King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Dentistry (KAUFD). Response rate was 77.2%. Questionnaire consisted of five parts: general information; questions related to cigarette smoking; questions related to hooka/waterpipe smoking; questions related to shisha smoking and questions for non-smokers. The data was analyzed using the SPSS-PC package. Analysis included simple descriptive statistics in the form of percentages, frequency distributions and bar graphs; a p value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results:
368 dental students who answered the questionnaire, 19.2% students were smokers and 80.8% (31.1% males and 68.9% females) were non-smokers. According to year of study, the highest percentage of students who smoked were in their senior years (5th: 24.3%). Peer pressure was the most likely reason to start smoking, as well as pressure from the school.
There is a clear need for the school to implement more ways to help students cope with the stress of academic load, as well as more awareness of the addictive nature of tobacco use, to empower the students to fight the pressures both within and outside their school life.