Use of electronic cigarettes and associate factors on universities

Abstract

Introduction: In the last decade, with the increase in the use of social media, electronic cigarettes have expanded globally and their use has increased exponentially, creating a generation prone to nicotine addiction without adequate awareness and education about the harmful effects. Objective: the present study aimed to estimate the level of knowledge of EC and the association of predictive factors in college students. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional, quantitative and analytical study, carried out at the State University of Montes Claros (UNIMONTES), with undergraduate students in Physical Education. The independent variables investigated referred to sociodemographic factors, behavioral habits and knowledge about electronic cigarettes. For data treatment, descriptive analyzes of all investigated variables were performed through their frequency distributions. Then, bivariate analyzes were performed between the outcome variable and each independent variable. Variables with a descriptive level (p-value) <0.20 were selected for multiple analysis. Results: 132 university students participated in the study. The prevalence of electronic cigarette use for men was 37.2% and for women 20.4%. After multivariate analysis, the variable consumption of alcoholic beverages remained in the model for males, showing that university students who drink have (PR = 1.55 CI % 1.26-1.89), compared to those who do not drink of alcoholic beverages. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of electronic cigarette experimentation among the studied population. The associated risk factor refers to the consumption of alcoholic beverages among men.