title: Prevalence and characteristics of smokers at 30 Pacific Northwest colleges and universities.
abstract: College is an important transition period during which young adults explore tobacco use. Few large-scale studies have been conducted among college students regarding tobacco use. We initiated a study examining tobacco use in 30 colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest. We conducted a baseline survey among students. Sample size varied by the school size; for the 14 largest schools, we drew a random sample of all students, oversampling freshmen (n approximately 750) so that we could recruit and follow a cohort to assess smoking onset during the college years. Of the remaining students, we sampled equivalent numbers of sophomores, juniors, and seniors (n = 200 each). For the 16 schools with fewer than 1,350 students, we surveyed all students. We found overall smoking rates of 17.2%. Males (18.6%) were more likely to smoke than females (16.6%; p = .03), and public college students were more likely to smoke (20.5%) than those who attended private independent schools (18.9%; p = .61), whose rates were higher than those of private religious schools (11.6%; p = .001). Overall, college students are light smokers who do not smoke every day of the month. Further, they tend not to be highly dependent on tobacco, do not consider themselves regular smokers, and plan to quit before they graduate (56.8%). School type should be considered when estimating smoking rates among 4-year college students. Data indicate that college smokers wish and plan to quit before graduation, suggesting that efforts to assist smokers in quitting during the college years may be fruitful.
authors: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA. bthompso@fhcrc.org
authors: Beti
authors: B
authors: Thompson
authors: Gloria
authors: G
authors: Coronado
authors: Lu
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: L Anne
authors: LA
authors: Thompson
authors: Abigail
authors: A
authors: Halperin
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Jaffe
authors: Tim
authors: T
authors: McAfee
authors: Susan M
authors: SM
authors: Zbikowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007061:Idaho / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009922:Oregon / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration; D014861:Washington / Q000453:epidemiology