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Background: Health professional (HP) students may have an important role in controlling future tobacco use of their patients, and public at large. It is important to understand their existing level of awareness and support for national anti-tobacco policies. We thus aim to explore Pakistani HP students' existing attitudes towards national anti-tobacco policy and examine factors associated with lack of awareness, and support amongst them. Methods: Secondary data analysis of the Global Health Professional Students Survey, Pakistan, 2011 was performed. Study population included 4,235 health professional students enrolled in third year of graduate level HP programs. The policy support metrics were developed using six questions from the survey. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to analyze association between HP students' awareness, and support for anti-tobacco policy (outcome variables), and various socio-demographic, attitudinal, and knowledge related factors. Descriptive statistics are reported as proportions, and results of logistic regression analysis were reported as odds ratios with 95% confidence interval. Results: Overall, among HP students, 10.8% (n = 391) were current smokers, and 26.7% (n = 965) of them were cigarette experimenters. Almost half, (46.1%, n = 1666) of the HP students did not have an awareness of the official policy banning tobacco use in their school buildings and clinics; and only one in ten (9.4%, n = 338) of them did not support anti-tobacco policies. Students were less likely to be aware if they had second hand exposure at home/work (OR = 0.73, 95% CI (0.57-0.92), p-value <0.01). Furthermore, students who were current smokers (OR = 0.21, 95% CI (0.08-0.56), or cigarette experimenters (OR = 0.42, 95% CI (0.26-0.70), p-value <0.01), were least likely to support anti-tobacco policies. Conclusion: We found that HP students lack awareness of anti-tobacco policies; and were less likely to support such efforts if they were current smokers. These findings may help in understanding existing perceptions of the future care givers in Pakistan. Future anti-tobacco efforts and HP training programs may target the smoking HPs to enhance their full support in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background An important way of reducing tobacco use is to train the health professional (HP) students to assist in tobacco cessation by educating patients and public. In order to shape their thoughts for the desired role, it is vital to understand their existing perceptions regarding HP's role in tobacco control. Thus, the aim of our study was to find out the perceptions of Pakistani HP students regarding their future role in tobacco control, and examine factors associated with negative perceptions. Methods Secondary data analysis of the Global Health Professional Students Survey, Pakistan, 2011 was performed. Study population included 3445 health professional students in third year of graduate level programs. The dependent variable (perceptions of HP students), was developed using four questions from the survey. Students who did not regard HP's role in tobacco control were labeled as having negative perceptions. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to analyze association between HP students' perceptions and various sociodemographic, attitudinal and knowledge related factors; and were reported as adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval. Results We found that 44.8% (n = 1542) of students do not regard HPs as role model for their patients and public, and perceive that HPs do not play an important part in patient's quitting tobacco use. These negative perceptions were associated with male sex (OR = 1.25, 95% CI 1.02 - 1.53, p value 0.028), and poor knowledge about tobacco cessation techniques (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.12 - 1.55, p value < 0.001). Negative perceptions were also associated with their attitudes towards ban on: tobacco advertisements (OR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.13 - 2.48, p value 0.010); and tobacco use at public places (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.26 - 2.03, p value < 0.001). Conclusion The role of HPs for tobacco control is fairly under-perceived by HP students, and the undesired negative perceptions are associated with male sex, poor knowledge about tobacco use cessation techniques and negative attitudes towards legislative control. A comprehensive approach, focusing on these aspects should be adopted to train HPs, in order to utilize them as an effective manpower for tobacco control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Betel quid (BQ) chewing in children is initiated in their adolescence. It is pivotal to understand adolescents' reasons behind chewing BQ. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the reasons for BQ chewing amongst adolescents using reasons for betel quid chewing scale (RBCS) and their associated dependency on it.Methods: This is a cross-sectional school based survey. Out of 2200 adolescents from 26 schools of Karachi, 874 BQ chewers were assessed for their reasons of BQ chewing and dependency on it. Regression analyses were employed to report crude and adjusted (after adjusting for all reasons of BQ chewing) effect sizes with 95% confidence interval and P-value was set significant at < 0.05.Results: Students who believed that BQ chewing relaxes them (stimulation construct) were twice as likely to be dependent on BQ (OR = 2.36, 95% CI (1.20-4.65) as compared with others. Participants who thought it eases their decision making (stimulation construct), were sizably more likely to be dependent on BQ (OR = 9.65, 95% CI (4.15-22.43) than those who did not consider ease in decision making important. Adolescents who considered not chewing as rude (social/cultural construct), were thrice more likely to be dependent on BQ (OR = 2.50, 95% CI (1.11-5.63) than others.Conclusions: Stimulation remained fundamental chewing reason followed by social/cultural trigger amongst adolescents. Any future intervention may get favorable results if it addresses ways to overcome stimulation and social/cultural barriers that are strongly associated with BQ chewing and dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Susceptibility to smoke has been recognized as a strong predictor of smoking experimentation and taking up regular smoking habit. The identification of smoking susceptible individuals and its determinants is important in the efforts to reduce future smoking prevalence. The aims of this study are to estimate prevalence of susceptibility to smoke among adolescents, and identify factors associated with it.Methods: Cross sectional data was obtained from Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in three cities of Pakistan in year 2004. Study population consisted of students in grades, 8th, 9th, and 10th; aged 13 to 15 years. Secondary analysis using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the associations between smoking susceptibility and co-variates. Descriptive statistics were reported in proportions, and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were used to report logistic regression analyses.Results: Approximately 12% of nonsmoking students were found susceptible to smoking. Students, who were females (OR = 1.53, 95% CI [1.24-1.89]); whose parents (OR = 1.64, 95% CI [1.35-1.99]); or close friend smoked (OR = 2.77, 95% CI [2.27- 3.40]) were more susceptible to cigarette smoking. Students who had good knowledge about harmful effects of smoking (OR = 0.54, 95% CI [0.43-0.69]); and had access to anti-smoking media (OR = 0.73, 95% CI [0.59-0.89]) were less likely to be susceptible to smoking.Conclusion: Students who were females, had smoking parents, friends or exposure to newspaper/magazines cigarette marketing, were more susceptible to cigarette smoking among Pakistani adolescents. While knowledge of harmful effects of smoking and access to anti-smoking media served as protective factors against susceptibility to smoking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]