Differences of smoking knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors between medical and non-medical students

Background Previous studies in the world reported inconsistent results about the relationship of medical professional education with medical students' smoking behaviors, and no similar research had been published in China. Purpose This paper aims to explore whether the differences of smoking-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors existed between medical and non-medical undergraduate students. Methods Eight thousand one hundred thirty-eight undergraduate students sampled from a university in Guangzhou were investigated with a self-administered structured questionnaire about their smoking-related knowledge, attitude and behaviors, and other relevant factors. General linear model and multinomial logistic regression were conducted to test the differences in smoking-related knowledge, attitude, and behaviors between medical and non-medical students while controlling for potential confounding variables. Results There was no difference in smoking-related knowledge scores between medical and non-medical freshmen, but medical sophomores and juniors had higher scores of smoking-related knowledge than their non-medical counterparts. The medical sophomores had higher mean score of attitudes towards smoking than non-medical ones. Before entering university, the difference in the prevalence of experimental and regular smoking between medical and non-medical college students was not significant. After entering university, in contrast, the overall prevalence of regular smoking was significantly higher among male nonmedical college students than among male medical students. Stratified by current academic year, this difference was significant only among male sophomores. Conclusions Medical students have higher smoking-related knowledge, stronger anti-smoking attitude, and lower prevalence of regular smoking than non-medical college students of similar age, which may be associated with medical professional education.