Sociodemographic and psychological characteristics associated with smoking among Greek medical students.

This study aims to investigate associations between sociodemographic and psychological characteristics and smoking among Greek medical students. The students studied were separated into four groups: non-smokers and occasional, regular and heavy smokers. The students completed a battery of inventories and checklists. Immigrant students, users of other psychoactive substances, students more prone to minor delinquency and students with high scores on activity level, approach to new situations, sociability and novelty seeking showed higher smoking rates. A better understanding of these differences could be useful for the planning of antismoking policy. Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel