WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Zahraa Raad Amori*, Anwer Hameed Rashid and Salam Sahib Obaid

ABSTRACT

Background: Tobacco smoking in particular ordinary and electronic cigarette or vaping has remained a major public health concern affecting young people across the globe. The emergence of vapes as an electronic cigarette has led to new trends in smoking behaviors including among the university students assuming that vapes are safer compared to smoking. Objectives: To measure the prevalence of electronic cigarette smoking among Karbala university students and assess students’ knowledge about its health risks to establish preventive and control measures. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted from March - May 2024, data collected from 500 students in colleges (dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, physical education, and engineering) at university of Karbala, by using self-administered questionnaire, analysis of data were done by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), and Chi square test used to measure the associations between variables. Results: The results of the study showed that a total of 500 participants, 188 were smoking. Moreover, among (188) who smoke 75 participants (39.8%) currently smoke vape, (53.3%) of them were smoking vape daily. Electronic cigarette use was P. Value (0.001) associated with gender, among males (22.6%) of study participants, and family history of using electronic cigarette (24.4%) of study participants, about awareness of students 378 (75.6%) of them think that electronic cigarette was not safe, 271 (54.2%) of them think that electronic cigarette causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. A majority of non-smokers (81%) considered vape as addictive as tobacco. The highest proportion of electronic cigarette use was recorded in students who think that electronic cigarette is less dangerous than tobacco (18.3%). Awareness between medical and non-medical students about whether electronic cigarette causing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, most of those with medical specialization (70.1%), (p=0.000) agreed, while about only (29.9%) of non- medical specialization agreed. Conclusion: The prevalence of electronic cigarette among Karbala university students was (15%).