Prevalence of smoking and consumption of nicotine-containing products among students of medical and technical universities (PROTECT)

BACKGROUND: The study of the prevalence of the use of tobacco and nicotine-containing products among young people is an ongoing and critical area of research. This article presents the analysis of data from the pilot phase of the study “Prevalence of smoking and consumption of nicotine-containing products among students of medical and technical universities” (PROTECT), which was planned for 2023 among students of the North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov (Saint Petersburg), Northern State Medical University (Arkhangelsk), and Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University “LETI” named after V.I. Ulyanova (Lenina) (Saint Petersburg). AIM: To examine the prevalence and patterns of the use of tobacco and nicotine-containing products, attitudes toward smoking behavior, perceptions of smoking, use of nicotine-containing products, and their effects among students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was followed. An only anonymous questionnaire survey was used as the main method of research. RESULTS: The pilot phase involved 118 respondents from randomly selected groups outside the main study sample (mean age, 20.9 ± 2.6 years, 54.2% men). The analysis included demographic data, questions about the respondent’s environment, attitudes toward smoking/use of nicotine-containing products, and perceptions of smoking/use of nicotine-containing products. Students of medical universities and technical universities accounted for 70.3% and 29.7% of the sample, respectively. In total, 73.7% of the students did not smoke or consume nicotine-containing products. Nonsmoking students were younger than cigarette smokers and/or nicotine-containing product smokers: 20.3 ± 2 vs 24.8 ± 3.4 years (р 0.01). The proportion of students who do not use any tobacco or nicotine-containing products was higher than that of smokers (cigarette/vaping/electronic cigarette/tobacco heating systems; 73.7% vs. 26.3%). Smokers included 71.0% predominantly nicotine-containing product users and 16.1% users that smoked a combination of tobacco and nicotine-containing products. Friends of smokers smoked more often than nonsmokers (90.3% vs. 56.3%; р 0.01). Positive or neutral attitudes toward smoking (71.0% vs 47.1%; р 0.05), vaping (74.2% vs 45.9%; р 0.05), and vaping relatives (45.2% vs 18.4%; р 0.01) were more observed among smokers than among nonsmokers. Compared with nonsmokers, smokers are more likely to attribute the benefits of smoking (25.8 vs 6.9%; р 0.05) and believe that vapors are effective as a nicotine dependence treatment (29.0% vs 9.2%; р 0.05) and are a safe alternative to smoking (22.6% vs 6.9%; р 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The developed online questionnaire is simple and understandable to respondents, and the data are correctly stored, allowing it to be used in the main phase of the study. The identified trends indicate the popularity of nicotine-containing products among students, and more detailed studies are required.