Prevalence and Perceptions toward Electronic Cigarettes (Vaping) Use among Medical Students: A New Public Health Challenge in Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Using of electronic cigarettes is on the increase all over the world, in particular, among young people. Vaping regularly resulted in health complications with substantial proof. The study was to evaluate university students’ prevalence and perceptions in terms of E-cigarettes. An online cross-sectional survey was utilized to conduct the research from June 4th, 2023 to November 15th, 2023 at Hawler Medical University, Kurdistan Region in Erbil, Iraq. The questionnaire was filled up by 629 students. The features, prevalence, and perception of the participants were assessed using descriptive statistics. The chi-square test was used with the statistical significance fixed at p <0.05. The prevalence of electronic cigarettes was 99 (15.7%) The majority of the participants 277 (44%) age group (20-21) years old, in more than half of the participants were female 382 (60.7%), the academic year of the participant were 211 (33.5%) of them first year and 156 (24.8%) of them from the College of Medicine at Hawler Medical University. Approximately one-third (74.6%) of the samples demonstrated fair alertness regarding the damaging effects of smoking hookah, while only 6.4% exhibited marvelous alertness. The usage of extraordinary prevalence of E-cigarettes was identified. It leads to an upturn of attractiveness and habit of E-cigarettes among students of college. The study recommends that the relevant governmental offices take the findings into consideration. Systematic activities should be performed to stop prevalence of E-cigarettes usage and to rise the peoples’ knowledge regarding nicotine products.