title: Smoking behaviour among arts student of a college in Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada.
abstract: 176 Arts students out of 450 students doing their under-graduation in an age range of 17 to 24 years returned a questionnaire designed to test their level of knowledge about smoking, attitude towards smoking and practice of smoking. 96.6% of the respondents were aware of the injurious nature of smoking. Potential to induce lung cancer was known by 93.2% of them, but only 34.1% knew it was a factor for GI malignancy. A higher proportion of males had good knowledge whereas females had moderate knowledge (p = 0.04). The incidence of smoking was 33.1%. A higher proportion of smokers chewed pan and consumed supari. 68.2% of smokers wished to quit smoking. Easy availability (47.7%) and influence of friends (34.1%) were the predominant reasons to smoke. Interestingly, 48% of males felt that smoking women had appeal. Anti smoking campaigns in addition to provision of information has to focus towards a change in attitude to smoking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, India.
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Sajjan
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chacko
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Asha
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001154:Art; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*