ABSTRACT
To determine the frequency of cigarette smoking among students of Peshawar University and compare it with the previous study conducted in year 2000. A cross sectional study was conducted and data was collected on a self-administered questionnaire from the participants selected from the departments of Peshawar University. The study was conducted among the students of Peshawar,University from Sep 2003 to March 2004. A sample of 550 students was invited to participate in this study. "After signing the consent, information on demographics, smoking habits, media influences and health histories were obtained using the standardized questionnaire. The data after;auditing was analysed using SPSS version 12.1. The results of 436 participants was analysed further and 114 questionnaires were found either blank or incomplete. Current smokers in the study were 119 [27%] and ex smokers were 69 [16%] There were 114 [34%] and 5 [5%] smokers among 336 male and 100 female students, respectively. The mean age of starting smoking was 17 years [range 28 to 6 years] and 87% smoker's students had one or more smokers in their families. The brand of cigarettes favored by 42% of the smokers was Gold Leaf and 90 percent of the smokers claimed they were influenced by the advertisement in the electronic and print media. 85% of the smokers were aware of the health warnings on cigarette packets. Comparing the result of this study 2 "Year 03" to the study 1 "Year 2000", the number of smokers in the University students has significantly increased to 27% from 15%[p <.001] overall; in male to 34% from 20% and females to 5% from 1%, respectively