Demographic characteristics and their impact on the prevalence of smoking among university students in Yemen: an analytical study

Abstract

The prevalence of tobacco smoking among university students is increasing worldwide, particularly in Yemen. Breaking traditional norms that once limited smoking to older, uneducated women. This shift highlights a growing public health concern, especially among youth and teenagers. This aims of this study is to analyze the relationship between demographic characteristics and the prevalence of smoking among university students in Yemen.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from March-May 2019 in urban and rural areas of Hodeidah and Hajja Provinces. A standardized questionnaire, adapted from global health and youth tobacco surveys, was administered to 760 randomly selected full-time students from all academic years, achieving a 94.4% response rate.

Results: A cross-sectional study of 760 university students revealed a smoking prevalence of 25.5%, with higher rates observed among female, older, single, and dormitory-residing students, as well as those in Medicine and Health Sciences or urban areas (P<0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that males were less likely to smoke than females (OR 95% CI: 1.308–3.12, P<0.05), and smoking was significantly associated with age (P<0.001), being single (OR 95% CI: 1.058–2.678, P<0.05), and living away from family (OR 95% CI: 1.214–2.978, P<0.05). Low family income was identified as a risk factor and significant predictor of smoking status (P<0.05), with college affiliation also strongly associated (P<0.001). An analysis of smoking types among university students revealed significant associations with gender, family income and area (P<0.001) and age (P=0.002). while waterpipe smoking was higher among students living with families (52.7% vs. 9.8%) (P<0.001). and the third and fourth years the highest combined smoking rates (52.4% and 100.0%, respectively) (P<0.001). Departmental differences showed the highest rates of waterpipe smoking among nursing students (60.9%), cigarette smoking in laboratory students (100.0%), and combined smoking in community college students (48.2%) (P<0.001). These findings highlight the influence of demographic, residential, and academic factors on smoking behavior.

Conclusions: Smoking prevalence among Yemeni university students was higher than previous national rates. Smoking was significantly associated with gender, residence, age, marital status, income, and college department, highlighting the need for targeted health education and anti-smoking programs in higher education institutions.