Factors Associated with Smoking Among Male College Students in Dhaka city, Bangladesh

        Adolescent smoking is a significant problem, especially in males. However, there is little information regarding smoking behavior among adolescents particularly concerning the association between related factors and smoking experience. The purposes of this cross-sectional study were to investigate the prevalence of smoking and to examine related factors to smoking among male college students in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. The Precede-Proceed model was used as conceptual framework in this study. A sample of 290 male students in grade 11-12 at public colleges located in Dhaka city was randomly selected to participate in this study during March 2014. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires (SAQ) comprising Demographic Data Questionnaire, Smoking Refusal Self-efficacy Scale (SRSS), Attitude Towards Smoking Questionnaire (ATTQ), Social Influence Questionnaire(cigarette accessibility, peer smoking, parental approval of smoking), and Smoking Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Binary logistic regression Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) were used for the data analysis. The results showed that about 18.3 % of participants reported current smoking. The influential predisposing factors on smoking among male adolescents were age (AOR = 4.21, 95% CI = 1.73-10.21), educational level (OR=2.77; 95% CI 1.10 – 6.93), academic achievement (GPA) (AOR = 3.50, 95% CI = 1.56 – 7.84), smoking refusal self-efficacy (AOR = 10.82, 95% CI = 3.47- 33.72). The significant enabling factors of smoking was peer smoking (AOR = 3.95, 95%CI = 1.65 – 9.45) and reinforcing factors was parental approval of smoking. (AOR = 2.88, 95% CI = 1.26 – 6.54). However, attitude towards smoking (AOR= 1.27, 95%CI =.56 – 2.83), and cigarette accessibility (AOR = 2.16, 95% CI = .99 - 4.74) were not found to be significant. The findings suggest that Bangladesh has unveiled new health warnings for cigarette smoking among adolescents. Health care providers and people who involved should develop an effective adolescent smoking prevention program for adolescents, considering multi-component factors which have been identified in this study. Future study should include more diverse sample-i.e. private college students or female students.

Keywords: Smoking, Male adolescents, Bangladesh