Waterpipe smoking among university students: Prevalence and association with mental health, risky health behaviors and psychosocial factors Waterpipe smoking among university students

Abstract

Aim: Waterpipe contributes significantly to the tobacco epidemic, especially among youth. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of waterpipe smoking and its association with mental health, risky health behaviours and psychosocial factors in university students.Materials and Methods: An online survey was applied to students of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. In total, 4430 (15.49%) of 28582 students were reached. Waterpipe smoking was evaluated in categories of “ever” and “never”. After univariate analyzes, a “Hierarchical” Binary Logistic Regression model was performed.Results: The mean age of the participants was 21.79±3.57 [17–63] years; 51.96% of the participants were ever waterpipe smokers. Male gender (OR=1.61), staying in students’ home in contrast to all other places (OR=1.43), low academic achievement (OR=1.24), ever smoking cigarettes (OR=4.83), ever drinking alcohol (OR=3.50), being sexually active after the age of 18 (OR=2.11), the inability to cope with anger (OR=1.26), higher level of sensation seeking (OR=1.14) and higher level of impulsivity (OR=1.13) were found to be significantly associated with being ever waterpipe smoker.Discussion: Better understandings of the factors associated with waterpipe smoking may lead to more successful cessation and prevention strategies.