ABSTRACT
Smoking is a behavioral cause of premature morbidity and mortality, resulting in approximately four million persons dying of smoking-related diseases annually worldwide. This study aims to investigate the extent of smoking habit, knowledge toward smoking among Fayoum University students. A cross sectional analytical study was conducted in Fayoum University during the academic year 2010. A total of 804 students were selected by using randomized multi-stage sampling using self-administered questionnaire for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. The respondents age ranged from 18 to 26 years 20.36 +/- [1.21] years. The males were 51% [n=410] and females were 49% [n=394]. The prevalence of smoking among students was 13.4%. a large percentage of the smokers 82.4% used cigarettes while 8.3% smoked water pipe. Regarding knowledge about smoking related diseases, 97.3% of the students knew that smoking causes diseases; but only 5.6% of the sample had good/and satisfactory knowledge score about the causal role of tobacco in the development of specific diseases, and 66.7% of smoker students want to quit with a higher intention of for older group. In conclusion, smoking is prevalent among the university students and their knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking is generally superficial. Definite counseling programs are greatly needed to help students quit smoking