TY - JOUR AU - Khadka, Pooja AU - Bhandari, Pooja PY - 2022/11/08 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Prevalence and Contributing Factors of Smoking among Undergraduates in Pokhara Metropolitan City, Nepal JF - Journal of Health and Allied Sciences JA - jhas VL - 11 IS - 2 SE - ORIGINAL ARTICLES DO - 10.37107/jhas.310 UR - https://www.jhas.org.np/jhas/index.php/jhas/article/view/310 SP - 70-76 AB - <p>Introduction: Smoking is one of the most common preventable causes of death globally, contributing significantly to the global burden of diseases, especially chronic non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular and respiratory diseases,&nbsp;cancers, and stroke. It is a known fact that cigarette smoking is harmful and addictive, but very few pay attention to its deadly&nbsp;results.The study was conducted to assess the prevalence and contributing factors for smoking among undergraduates.</p><p>Methods: The purposive sampling technique was used to select the subjects. Total 220 undergraduates were choosen and&nbsp;a self–administered questionnaire was used to collect data.</p><p>Results: The respondents at around 70.0% were of age less than 21 whereas 30.0 % were of age more than 21. The mean age was 21.01±1years. More than half (54.08%) of the respondents were female, while 45.09% were male. The majority&nbsp;(92.72%) of the respondents belonged to the Hindu religion. Regarding ethnicity, 70.93% of the respondents were from&nbsp;the upper caste, while less than 1.36% belonged to religious minorities.The prevalence of smoking was found to be 15.0%.</p><p>Among 67.16% of the respondents initiated smoking at the age of 15-20 years. Maximum 56.71% bought smoking agents&nbsp;from their own pocket money. The major influencing factors for smoking were experimentation i.e. 46.26%, followed&nbsp;by peer pressure, 25.37%. The variables such as sex, age, religion, and educational status of a mother were found to be&nbsp;associated with smoking.</p><p>Conclusion: The prevalence of smoking among college students is low. Among them who smoke, majority of the students&nbsp;started smoking as experimentation and peer pressure.Strict laws against smoking should be formulated and implemented&nbsp;effectively. Awareness programs should be carried out focusing on harmful effects of smoking.</p> ER -