Impact of anxiety on the prevalence of tobacco use among medical students.

What is it about?

To assess the prevalence of tobacco use in a sample of medical students and house officers at Ain Shams University, Egypt, and to assess the impact of anxiety on tobacco use in this sample.

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Why is it important?

The prevalence of smoking among the medical students and house officers was 29.8%. The rate of smoking was found to increase significantly as the medical students progress through the years of their study. So, there was a statistically highly significant difference regarding smoking status with the first year students showing the highest percent of never smoking (78.5%) and house officers showing the highest percentage of ever and current smoking (31.6 and 10.2%), respectively. There was a statistically highly significant difference regarding anxiety among medical students and house officers with house officers having the highest percent of mild anxiety (69.3%), while the first year students have the highest percentage of moderate and severe and grossly severe anxiety (42.4 and 7.1%, respectively). There was a statistically highly significant difference regarding tobacco cigarette smoking in relation to anxiety in the first year students but not in the other groups. However, there was no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) regarding the severity of nicotine dependence in relation to the severity of anxiety (among surveyed medical students and house officers)

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