title: E-smoking among students of medicine - frequency, pattern and motivations.
abstract: E-smoking has become a public health problem. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of e-cigarette and tobacco cigarette use; to compare the patterns of smoking; to assess the attitudes and motivations for e-cigarette use.
  
  
  
  All 1,700 students from Faculty of Medicine (Medical University of Silesia) were invited to questionnaire based cross-sectional study about the frequency and attitudes towards the use of traditional and electronic cigarettes.
  
  
  
  The data were obtained from 1,318 medical students (response 77.5%) aged 22.1 ± 2.2 years. Traditional tobacco smoked 18.1%, e-cigarettes 1.3% and 2.2% were dual smokers. The overall frequency of e-smokers was 4.9% among men and 2.8% among women (p = 0.05). Compared to tobacco users in e-smokers duration of smoking was shorter (p < 0.001), the intensity of smoking was larger (p = 0.01), the number of e-cigarettes smoked daily was higher (p < 0.001). Dual smokers more frequently used tobacco cigarettes than e-cigarettes (p = 0.01) but smoked more e-cigarettes daily (p = 0.003). The choice of e-liquid depended on the flavour (50.0%), nicotine concentration (21.7%) and price (7.6%). No-nicotine e-cigarettes were used by 6.5% smokers. Dual smokers more frequently chose e-liquids with high nicotine concentration (p = 0.01). Motivations leading to e-smoking were: quitting tobacco (58.7%), less harmful impact on health (43.5%) and the price (34.8%). E-smoking as safe for health was perceived by 6.0% of respondents (35.5% in e-smokers vs. 4.9% in non e-smokers; p < 0.001).
  
  
  
  Among students of medicine, e-smoking is apparently less popular than smoking tobacco cigarettes. Respondents considered e-cigarettes to be harmful and addictive.
authors.affiliation: gbrozek@sum.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brożek
authors.forename: Mateusz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jankowski
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zejda
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jarosińska
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Idzik
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bańka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D066300:Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D000074285:Smokers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: electronic cigarettes; medical students; nicotine; smoking; tobacco products