Smoking habits and attitudes towards smoking among university students in Jordan.

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of smoking and to describe the habits, attitudes, and practices related to smoking among students of Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Irbid, Jordan. Students (n = 650) were recruited in randomly selected, cluster samples drawn from the medical and engineering colleges of JUST. They were made familiar with a modified Arabic version of the World Health Organisation Smoking Questionnaire and the Attitudes towards Smoking Questionnaire to study their habits, attitudes, and beliefs in relation to smoking. The study revealed that the prevalence of smoking was 28.6% (50.2% among males and 6.5% among females). Friends, not family, were the main source of the first smoking, and this most often occurred after 15 years of age (82.3%). Males preferred smoking in the cafeteria, females in the bathroom. The main advantage of smoking for males was calming down, while for females it was independence. Non-smokers chose not to smoke because of health and hatred of the habit. The non-smokers had more positive attitudes against smoking and were more aware of the adverse effects of smoking. The reasons smokers gave for starting smoking were pleasure, followed by stress and curiosity. Two-thirds of smokers intended to quit smoking in the future. Some smokers disagreed with some criticisms against smoking, and reasons why they did not want to quit included social attitudes, addiction, and not knowing how to quit. Results of this study may provide baseline data to develop an anti-smoking program in the university and encourage policy makers to limit smoking in the university by strengthening the policies against smoking. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.