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Prevalence and Psychological Characterization of Smoking amongst University Students in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Ullah, Hanif; Iqbal, Ayesha; Azhar, Saira; Ullah Khan, Inayat & Murtaza, Ghulam
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Psychology; Smoking; Health; Withdrawal symptoms; Counseling
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