Prevalence and Psychological Characterization of Smoking amongst University Students in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Purpose: To evaluate smoking, its causes, ill effects on the health and symptoms associated with smoking and smoking withdrawal among university students of Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Methods: The questionnaire based study was conducted amongst university students in Abbottabad, Pakistan during November – December, 2012. Data were collected from university students using a self-administered questionnaire through simple random sampling. Results: Most subjects (43.6 %) started smoking during college life. Out of the total, 27.2 % of the subjects were of the opinion that smoking is a bad habit, but they still continued smoking. Among them, 17.6 % started smoking to ‘feel’ like adults, 20.8 % started just to feel the experience of doing so, 17.6 % were under the bad influence of friends and 8.4 % people wanted to escape from stressful life and seek comfort in smoking. Symptoms associated with smoking were shortness of breath (22.4 %), tiredness (17.2 %), chest pain (22.8 %), sleeping problem (16.8 %) and cough (43.2 %). Moreover, symptoms associated with withdrawal include mood disturbance (16.1 %), headache (9.9 %), tiredness (7.5 %), constipation (11.3 %), dry mouth (10.4 %), sleep disturbance (6.9 %), cough (5.4 %) and study problem (9.3 %). Conclusion: Smoking habit among the university students is common and in many cases results from experimentation and feeling of adulthood. Proper education on the dangers of smoking is vital.