Willingness to smoke cessation among students of Medical Universities in Karachi.

Introduction: Smoking is a public health concern of high importance. Globally, the prevalence of smoking has decreased gradually over a period from 1990-2015. However, the total numbers of smokers has increased over the same period. Currently, there are 1.1 billion smokers in the world which risk to an increase in smoking related health issues in turn contributes to increased burden of non-communicable diseases Objective: To assist the willingness to smoke cessation among medical students and its associated factors. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study comprised of a self-administered Hamilton Tobacco use questionnaire administered witheligible university students. Data was collected from 266-participants after taking verbal informed consent. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of out of 266 respondents were taken for the study. In general, willingness to cessation smoke among medical students in Karachi was seen about 64% while high ratio reported among female as compare to males. In MBBS students it is 64.9%, BDS 65.3% and 55.8% among BS. Conclusion: The high ratio of smoke cessation in female students is an indicator towards need of massive behavioral change campaign in order to encourage medical students to quit cigarette smoking and other tobacco related substances. It can be possible by provision of some educational projects regarding the health hazards of smoking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]