The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Tobacco consumption is one of the most important risk factors for premature death all over the world. However there is paucity of information from the medical profession regarding smoking in Nigeria. The objective of this study therefore, was to assess the knowledge and behavior of medical students regarding smoking and their attitudes to tobacco control policy in Nigeria.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on second to sixth year medical students of the University of Ibadan using a self-administered questionnaire originally developed by WHO but modified to suit the local setting. Knowledge about risks of smoking and attitudes towards anti-tobacco policy were explored by gender, level of study, religion and ethnicity.

Results: Overall smoking prevalence was 3%. More men smoked than women, especially among the clinical students (p= 0.003). Nonsmokers had better knowledge about the risks of smoking. Furthermore, the clinical students had better knowledge than the preclinical students (p= 0.012). Nonsmokers had more favorable attitudes towards anti-tobacco policy than smokers (p= 0.000). Women also had significantly higher attitudinal scores than men (p= 0.012). Although clinical students had a more favorable attitude than the preclinical students the difference was not statistically significant (p= 0.924)

Conclusions: Smoking is not very common among medical students in Ibadan. However, there is need to intensify prevention and control efforts because of the potentials of escalation of smoking rates due to aggressive marketing strategies of big tobacco industry in Ibadan. The curriculum in medical schools should equip students to promote anti-tobacco policies