Objective: It has been established that smoking causes four million deaths each year worldwide. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess the students’ smoking habits and their attitude towards smoking cessation.
Methods: The survey conducted in 2011 was based on a questionnaire filled in anonymously by dental students from each year of study at the Faculty of Dental Medicine in Tîrgu Mureș. Six-hundred ninety-two students (454 female, 238 male) aged 18 to 30+ years were questioned. The statistical analysis was performed by analysis of variance and Mann-Whitney test.
Results: 35.25% of the participants were smoking. Statistically significant differences could not be observed in gender distribution of the smokers group (p=0.728). The majority of subjects were smoking less than one cigarette/day, however significant differences were found in student’s smoking habits (p=0.006). 38.11% of the smokers have already tried to quit smoking more than five times without success and 32.37% never tried to quit smoking in the last year. 94% of the participants agreed that both the active and the passive smoking is harmful for the general health. The dental students explained very rarely the risks of tobacco smoking to their smoking patients: 30.78% ignored it and 15.17% of students did not respond this question.
Conclusions: The prevalence of smoking was high in the surveyed students, however the majority of the smokers had tried to quit smoking. The results call for relevant educational measures for smoking prevention and cessation.