ASSESSING KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES REGARDING E-CIGARETTES AMONG UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS

Abstract

Background: smoking is a public health issue that has been trending among youngsters and adolescence in the form of modern smoking devices such as e-cigarettes. And as nursing students are future healthcare professionals thus their knowledge, attitude and practices will directly influence patient’s recovery and well being

Objectives: The purpose of our study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of undergraduate nursing students regarding e-cigarette.

Methodology: This survey was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted among nursing students with 139 sample size from a private nursing institute. The data was collected by structured questionnaire through stratified sampling technique with proportion allocation using Likert scale to measure the level of knowledge and awareness. The reliability was measured through Chronbach’s Alpha that was 0.66 and 0.68. SPSS version 27 was used for data analysis of descriptive and inferential data.

Results: The findings of this study comprised that students containing youngsters with 71.2% range from 18-20 years and 61.9% were in their first year containing 50.4% female and d48.9% males. Most of the respondents have basic knowledge about nature of e-cigarette and around(70.5%) come from families with minimal parental and sibling smoking. Peer influence and marketing techniques are a potential trigger in initiation of experimentation as around (29.5%) claimed it to effect them and (27.3%) got their first device from a peer and around(56.2%) claims that adverts make look vaping cool.

Conclusion: The study results revealed a higher level of knowledge along with positive attitude toward legislation and bans in Pakistan on smoking devices but also some potential triggers come to surface that is needed to be addressed through proper training, awareness campaigns and guidance along with policies and rules to avoid usage.