Abstract:
The objective of this survey is to study knowledge attitude and practice of smoking among male students of Chulalongkorn University. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 4,525 male students of all faculties in the academic year of 1990. A total of 3,600 returned questionnaires was equal to nearly 50% of all male students in Chulalongkorn University. It was found that the prevalence of smoking among male students was 15.1%. The highest smoking rate was observed in communication arts students. The rates of smoking were increased as the classes and ages are higher and the rate was found highest in either the 4th years students or at the age of 24. Major factor influencing the beginning of smoking habit was to test or learn about (33.0%). The factor which had the great impact on resuming smoking after quitting was to calm down the sadness and worrineses (27.7%). Reasons for never quitting smoking were that it helped calming down sadness, worriness and also served as a mean to use free time (15.4%). Major factor for not returning to smoke after quitting and among those who wear non-smokers, were the fear of health hazardous effect (30.1%) and having no desire to try (37.0%). It was discovered that average score on knowledge of non-smoking students was statistically higher than those of smoking students (p<.01). Average score of attitude of smoking students was statistically higher than that of the non-smokers (P<.01). There is statistical difference on knowledge and attitude among the Sciences-student group, the Social groups and Science-social group (P>.05)