Prevalence of somatic diseases among students of the St. Petersburg Medical University depending on smoking status according to the PROTECT-2 study

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Taking into account the pathological impact of tobacco and nicotine-containing products (NCP) on the human body, an analysis of the health status of 1st-year students of the medical faculty of the St. Petersburg Medical University was conducted.

AIM of the study was to study the prevalence and structure of consumption of tobacco and nicotine-containing products, as well as the incidence of medical students depending on their smoking status.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. A cross-sectional study of a continuous sample of 1st-year students of the medical faculty North-Western State Medical University named after I.I.  Mechnikov. Research methods - online questionnaires to obtain information on smoking status and the study of outpatient cards with the results of annual preventive examinations of students from the university clinic.

RESULTS. The analysis included data from 466 1st-year students, 26.0% of whom were men. The response rate was 91%. The average age of the participants was 19.1 ± 2.5 years. More than two thirds of the participants (79.6%) have never used traditional or electronic cigarettes. The prevalence of cigarette smoking was 2.4% among all participants. It was revealed that 5.2% of respondents consume some type of NSP. The combined consumption of traditional and electronic cigarettes was 12.9%. No differences by gender depending on the smoking status were found. No differences by gender depending on the smoking status were found. When analyzing outpatient cards, 10.1% of students were found to have hypercholesterolemia, 2.4% - hyperglycemia, 6.2% - overweight and obesity. Atopic diseases (hay fever, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and allergic dermatitis) were detected in 3.2% of participants. Among the diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract, chronic sinusitis, tonsillitis, bronchitis, bronchial asthma were diagnosed in 6.4% of students. 1.9% of first-year students suffer from acute respiratory viral infections more than 3 times a year. Cardiovascular diseases were observed in 6.9%. The most frequent pathologies were spinal diseases (15.5%), visual impairment (37.8%), gastrointestinal diseases (9%), and neurological diseases (4.3%). Other diseases of almost all body systems were diagnosed with a frequency of 0.2 to 2.8% of cases. No differences in the prevalence of diseases depending on the smoking status were found.

CONCLUSION. Combined consumption of traditional and electronic cigarettes was the most preferred among consumers. Data from a preventive examination of first-year students indicate that some of them have risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases and many chronic diseases. Given the tendency to prefer combined smoking in the presence of risk factors and somatic diseases, one can assume an increase in the harm of smoking products to the health of young people, which is subject to further study.