RESUMO
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to test the physical and psychological- emotional status according to type of personality of female college student smokers and to provide baseline data for smoking cessation education programs for women. METHOD: The data were collected from May to June, 2002. The subjects were 119 female students who smoked. The data were analyzed using SPSS/PC. RESULTS: The results are as follows 1. There were 91 (76.5%) A type and 28 (23.5%) B Type personality types, indicating that female student smokers were more frequently type A rather than type B. 2.Perceived health status by personality type indicated that those with type B (27.71+/-4.67) perceived higher health status than those with type A (26.53+/-4.60) but the result was not statistically significant (p=0.237). 3.Perceived stress by personality type indicated that those with type B (83.71+/-13.13) perceived more stress than those with type A (70.52+/-12.35). 4.Differences between depression by personality type indicated that those with type B (47.21+/-8.53) perceived more stress than those with type A (45.42+/-7.32) but this was not statistically significant (p=.277). 5.There were significant negative correlations between perceived health status and stress (r=-0.300, P<0.004), depression and perceived health status (r=-0.456, P<0.000). There was significant positive correlation between stress and depression (r=0.700, P<0.000). 6.There was no significant difference between perceived health status, stress, or depression according to general characteristics. CONCLUSION: According to the results, researchers should continually identify women's smoking behavior included various physical and psychological variables related to women's health. In addition, programs for improving physical and psychological health should be designed and operated to decrease the perception of stress and to increase the perception of health motivation for women smokers.