[The Epidemiological Profile Of Smoking Among Men In Uniform At Camp Almamy Samory Touré].

Abstract

Introduction: Smoking, a major preventable cause of morbidity and mortality is a real public health problem in the world.

The objective: was to establish the epidemiological profile of smoking among soldiers at Camp Almamy Samory Touré.

Method: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study lasting 6 months in 2018 at Camp Almamy Samory Touré in Conakry including all serving soldiers, without distinction of age, sex, residence and who accepted freely to participate.

Results: We investigated 384 soldiers, including 287 smokers, a prevalence of 75% and 97 non-smokers, 25%. The most represented age group was 31-40 years 25.5% with an average age of 38.95 ± 9.36 years. They were all male (100%) and the majority resided in Conakry 96.61%. The level of education was secondary followed by higher and primary respectively: 38.54%; 24.48% and 23.70%. Married people were more numerous 39.58% followed by single people 34.11%. The average age of onset of smoking among our soldiers was 18.86 ± 3.42 years. Leisure places 26.48% were the main place of initiation to tobacco smoking. The 38.46% of the military smoke 11-20 wicks of cigarettes per day. During the study, 55.93% of soldiers wanted to quit smoking now.

Conclusion: The prevalence of smoking among soldiers at Camp Almamy Samory Touré in Conakry remains very high with a young and male predominance. Nearly ¾ of the soldiers surveyed had smoked in the past and places of leisure were the main place of initiation to tobacco smoking. However, more than half of the soldiers now wanted to quit smoking after a good knowledge of the toxic effects of this practice.