Fallacies about water pipe use in Turkish university students - what might be the consequences?
BACKGROUND
The popularity of the narghile waterpipe, also referred to as hookah, shisha or hubble-bubble has increased tremendously during the past few decades. The aim of this study was to expose perception of narghile among a representative sample of university students in Sakarya University campus.


METHODS
Written approval was taken from the local education authority. An anonymous questionnaire which was prepared by the investigators and contained 17 questions was administered. Nine of the questions were related to socio-demographic characteristics and eight were related to the students harm perceptions about waterpipe. A total of 1,320 questionnaries were received and after preliminary evaluation 1,255 (95.7%) were found to be suitable for evaluation. The data was evaluated in SPSS program by using percentages and averages.


RESULTS
The mean ± SD age of the students was 20.8 ± 2.29 years (min 18, max 32). There were 864 (68.8%) females and 391 (31.2%) males. A total of 6.3 % of the students (n=79) believed that waterpipe is not harmful because its smoke does not burn the lungs. Almost one-third (n=318) think that the carcinogenic chemicals are filtered while waterpipe smoke passes from the water; 12.1 % of the students (n=152) checked "true" for the statement of "waterpipe smoke contains no nicotine". It is seen that 14.0 % of the students (n=176) think waterpipe with fruit/ aroma is healthier than plain waterpipe.


CONCLUSIONS
As a result of this study, it is found out that a substantial number of university students have false beliefs on harmful effects of waterpipe smoking.
Department of Family Medicine, Kocaeli University Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli, Turkey E-mail : ndede@sakarya.edu.tr.
Muge Tuncay
MT
Alvur
Nursan
N
Cinar
Funda
F
Akduran
Cemile
C
Dede
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000009:adverse effects; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
D009538:Nicotine