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Differences of Smoking Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Between Medical and Non-medical Students

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Abstract

Background

Previous studies in the world reported inconsistent results about the relationship of medical professional education with medical students’ smoking behaviors, and no similar research had been published in China.

Purpose

This paper aims to explore whether the differences of smoking-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors existed between medical and non-medical undergraduate students.

Methods

Eight thousand one hundred thirty-eight undergraduate students sampled from a university in Guangzhou were investigated with a self-administered structured questionnaire about their smoking-related knowledge, attitude and behaviors, and other relevant factors. General linear model and multinomial logistic regression were conducted to test the differences in smoking-related knowledge, attitude, and behaviors between medical and non-medical students while controlling for potential confounding variables.

Results

There was no difference in smoking-related knowledge scores between medical and non-medical freshmen, but medical sophomores and juniors had higher scores of smoking-related knowledge than their non-medical counterparts. The medical sophomores had higher mean score of attitudes towards smoking than non-medical ones. Before entering university, the difference in the prevalence of experimental and regular smoking between medical and non-medical college students was not significant. After entering university, in contrast, the overall prevalence of regular smoking was significantly higher among male non-medical college students than among male medical students. Stratified by current academic year, this difference was significant only among male sophomores.

Conclusions

Medical students have higher smoking-related knowledge, stronger anti-smoking attitude, and lower prevalence of regular smoking than non-medical college students of similar age, which may be associated with medical professional education.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Chinese Medicine Board in New York (the grant number: CMB 00-729).

Competing Interests

None declared

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Min-Yan Han

  2. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, 74# Zhongshan 2 Road, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Wei-Qing Chen & Wen-Hua Ling

  3. Department of Community Health, Brown University, Providence, 02912, USA

    Xiao-Zhong Wen & Cai-Hua Liang

Authors
  1. Min-Yan Han
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  2. Wei-Qing Chen
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  3. Xiao-Zhong Wen
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  5. Wen-Hua Ling
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei-Qing Chen.

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Han, MY., Chen, WQ., Wen, XZ. et al. Differences of Smoking Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Between Medical and Non-medical Students. Int.J. Behav. Med. 19, 104–110 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-010-9140-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-010-9140-7

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