Prevalence and characteristics of E-cigarettes smoking among medical students

Introduction. In recent years, there has been a downward trend in the consumption of traditional tobacco products. However, the use of various electronic means of nicotine delivery, in particular, electronic cigarettes (e-Cigs), is widespread. E-Cigs are popular among young people.

The purpose of the work is to assess the prevalence and characteristics of e-Cigs consumption among medical students (using the example of Sechenov University).

Materials and methods. A survey of six hundred thirty students was conducted. Quantitative indices were assessed for compliance with normal distribution using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The critical value of the significance level when testing statistical hypotheses was taken as p≤0.05.

Results. The proportion of smoking students was 26.8%. Students use e-Cigs more often (64.5% of total smokers) than regular cigarettes (46.7%). Boys use regular tobacco products more often, while girls prefer e-Cigs. Multiple smoking devices (both traditional and electronic) are used by 18.9% of students. The main reasons for using e-Cigs are the absence of tobacco odour, ease of use and the presence of pleasant aromas. Only 18.4% of medical students consider e-Cigs less harmful than regular cigarettes. Preference is given to e-Cigs with nicotine. The most popular flavour among young people is fruit and berry. Almost all respondents use e-Cigs in the presence of other people. The intensity of e-Cigs smoking is high in 33.9%. More than half of smokers would like to quit smoking, but cannot due to the established habit and lack of incentive.

Limitations are due to the fact that study included students from university students whose professional standard of training suggest issues of a healthy lifestyle.

Conclusion. The share of students using e-Cigs is increasing. More than half of the respondents began using e-Cigs during their university studies. More attention needs to be paid to hygiene education and training on prevention and smoking cessation methods.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was approved by the local ethical committee of the Sechenov University (meeting protocol No. 02-23 dated January 26, 2023), and the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association (as amended 2013).

Contribution:
Zhernov Yu.V. — research design, editing;
Zelinskaya M.Yu. — collecting research material, writing text;
Isiutina-Fedotkova T.S. — collection of research material, text writing;
Makarova V.V. — collection of research material, data processing, text writing;
Shashina E.A. — research design, data processing, writing;
Kudryashov I.A. — collecting research material, writing text;
Kazimov A.E. — collecting research material, writing text;
Mitrokhin O.V. — research concept, editing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: July 7, 2024 / Accepted: October 2, 2024 / Published: November 19, 2024