Introduction: Tobacco addiction is one the main causes of evitable death. Tobacco kills every year more than 5 million of person in the world according to the WHO. Its effects on health are known to be harmful. In Egypt, a very few data are available on smoking in general and in the Universities in particular. Our survey wanted to study Tobacco addiction at Senghor University.
Method: transversal descriptive survey made in March 2012 with self-administrated questions to 200 students from 22 different countries and also to people working at Senghor University.
Results: In the end, 151 persons answered to the questionnaire (including 112 students and 38 employees from the University). 29% were women. The average age was 33 years old included between 20 and 59 years old. 12,2% of people who answered have a secondary and primary school level and for those who have a university level, 56,5% have a master’s degree, 15,6% a bachelor’s degree and 15,6% a doctorate. The Tobacco prevalence was 14% for actual smokers and 35% for former smokers. The most cited noxious effects of Tobacco are: cancer and pulmonary diseases (37 answers). 91% of our sample was exposed to second-hand smoke at the University. Nonetheless, 30% ignored the existence of the CCLAT convention (Convention Cadre de Lutte contre le Tabagisme) and the existence of an anti-Tobacco law. 7% allocate good effects to smoking including pleasure and incomes from taxes related to Tobacco sell.
Conclusion: The deleterious effects of Tobacco
are well-known. Young and active population like students and University
employees suffer from a lack of information and awareness on Tobacco addiction.
In concert with the staff and the students, we would like to propose nonsmoking
places and areas. Thanks to what we would be able to reduce Tobacco’s
prevalence and progressively make Senghor a nonsmoking University.