Cigarette smoking and oral health among healthcare students.

BACKGROUND: The knowledge, attitudes and practices of cigarette smoking and health risks among health workers has been found to be predictive of their efficiency as agents for tobacco cessation campaigns. OBJECTIVE: To describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of cigarette smoking and oral health risks among healthcare professional students. DESIGN: A cross sectional multi-level study. SETTING: College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi. SUBJECTS: Two hundred and eighty one students. RESULTS: Thirty four (12.1%) of the students were current smokers, 174 (61.95%) had never smoked, while 73 (26%) were former smokers. Seventy nine point four per cent of the current smokers were males and 20.6% were females. Pharmacy students had the highest smoking prevalence at 11 (32.4%), while dental and nursing students had the lowest percentages of current smokers. Differences observed in smoking status of students in the constituent schools of the College of Health Sciences were statistically significant (p = 0.008). Apart from knowledge levels on the association between tobacco consumption and lung cancer (p = 0.142), there were statistically significant differences in the awareness of the severe oral and systemic effects of smoking amongst the four student groups. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for harmonisation of teaching of oral and systemic effects of smoking so as to impact on the smoking habits and effectiveness of healthcare professional students as agents of smoking cessation programmes.

Prevalence of sexual intercourse among school-going adolescents in Coast Province, Kenya.

A study was carried out to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of sexual intercourse among school adolescents in Coast Province, Kenya. Data were obtained through the Kenya Global School-Based Health Survey. Overall the prevalence of sexual intercourse within the last 12 months was 14.9% (22.2% in males and 5.0% in females). Among males, the protective factors against having sex were being of age < 15 years (OR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.58, 0.62) and ever been drunk (OR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.59, 0.67). The risk factors for having sex among males were ever smoked (OR = 2.05, 95% CI 1.92, 2.19), having close friends (OR = 1.68, 95% CI 1.56, 1.81), currently drinking alcohol (OR = 1.13, 95% CI 1.06, 1.20), ever used drugs (OR = 2.36, 95% CI 2.24, 2.49) and parental supervision (OR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.25, 1.34). Meanwhile among female respondents, parental supervision was protective (OR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.81, 0.94) and the only risk factor was ever used drugs (OR = 2.85, 95% CI 2.57, 3.15). It is suggested that public health interventions aimed to promote adolescent sexual health should be designed with the appreciation of the factors associated with sexual activity in due consideration.

Socio-demographic factors of pupils who use tobacco in randomly-selected primary schools in Nairobi province, Kenya.

OBJECTIVE: To report the prevalence and socio-economic correlates of tobacco use among primary school pupils in Nairobi, Kenya. DESIGN: Cross-sectional school-based survey. SETTING: Ten primary schools in Nairobi, Kenya. SUBJECTS: A questionnaire was administered to 1198 primary school pupils aged 12 to 17 years and 1130 (response rate 94.3%) students responded under supervision in the classroom. RESULTS: A total of 31% (95% CI 27.5-34.5) had experimented with smoking, 9% (95% CI 7.1-11.5) with smokeless tobacco and 55% (95% CI 50.7-59.6) reported having friends who smoked. The rates of lifetime smoking were statistically significantly higher in urban than in suburban students (33% versus 25%, p<0.05), whereas a higher proportion of suburban residents reported lifetime use of smokeless tobacco (8 % versus 12 %, p<0.05). Among urban as well as suburban students, 15 years and above were significantly more likely than their counterparts aged 14 years and below to report lifetime smoking, lifetime use of smokeless tobacco, fathers' use of tobacco, and friend's tobacco use. The adjusted odds ratios, OR, and 95% confidence intervals, 95% CI, for students ever smoking were 2.2 (95% CI 1.3-1.8), 2.4 (95 % CI 1.6-3.7), 1.8 (95 % CI 1.1-3.2 and 2.6 (95 % CI 1.7-4.1) for place of residence, gender, age and friend's use of tobacco. CONCLUSION: Generally, the proportions of primary pupils using different forms of tobacco were low in Nairobi province, although the proportion of pupils who had smoked at least once in their lifetime amounted to 31%. Since primary school pupils live in an environment that makes them susceptible to smoking, preventive programmes should be introduced to avoid the development of nicotine addiction and regular smoking.