Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Prevalence and psychological characterization of smoking amongst university students in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Hanif Ullah¹, Ayesha Iqbal¹, Saira Azhar¹, Inayat Ullah Khan², Ghulam Murtaza¹

¹Department of Pharmacy, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad; ²Department of Surgery, Saidu Teaching Hospital, Swat, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Ghulam Murtaza Email: ghulammurtaza@ciit.net.pk Tel:+923142082826

Received: 19 May 2015 Accepted: 13 October 2015 Published: 29 November 2015

Citation: Ullah H, Iqbal A, Azhar S, Khan IU, Murtaza G. Prevalence and psychological characterization of smoking amongst university students in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(11):2121-2124 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i10.24

© 2015 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate smoking, its causes, ill effects on the health and symptoms associated with smoking and smoking withdrawal among university students of Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Methods: The questionnaire based study was conducted amongst university students in Abbottabad, Pakistan during November – December, 2012. Data were collected from university students using a self-administered questionnaire through simple random sampling.

Results: Most subjects (43.6 %) started smoking during college life. Out of the total, 27.2 % of the subjects were of the opinion that smoking is a bad habit, but they still continued smoking. Among them, 17.6 % started smoking to ‘feel’ like adults, 20.8 % started just to feel the experience of doing so, 17.6 % were under the bad influence of friends and 8.4 % people wanted to escape from stressful life and seek comfort in smoking. Symptoms associated with smoking were shortness of breath (22.4 %), tiredness (17.2 %), chest pain (22.8 %), sleeping problem (16.8 %) and cough (43.2 %). Moreover, symptoms associated with withdrawal include mood disturbance (16.1 %), headache (9.9 %), tiredness (7.5 %), constipation (11.3 %), dry mouth (10.4 %), sleep disturbance (6.9 %), cough (5.4 %) and study problem (9.3 %).

Conclusion: Smoking habit among the university students is common and in many cases results from experimentation and feeling of adulthood. Proper education on the dangers of smoking is vital.

Keywords: Psychology, Smoking, Health, Withdrawal symptoms, Counseling