Uso e conhecimento do Narguilé entre estudantes universitários e fatores associados

Abstract

The hookah, an ancient form of tobacco use and common in the countries of the Middle East, has gained popularity in recent decades as a social activity, especially among young people. There are around 100 million people in the world who make daily use of this tobacco derivative, being considered the new epidemic of the 21st century. Objectives: To evaluate the use and knowledge of hookah among university students in the health area of a public university and possible associated factors. Material and methods: This is a cross-sectional and comparative study. The study was conducted at a public university located in the South of Brazil with 564 students regularly enrolled in health area courses (nursing, pharmacy, medicine and dentistry). Two self-applied instruments were used. On the first instrument there were questions about socioeconomic variables, self-rated health, life habits and information about the use and knowledge about the consequences of the use of hookah. The second was the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, translated and validated into Portuguese, with the objective of evaluating the symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: The prevalence of occasional use of hookah for the total number of students was 51.8% and dentistry had the highest prevalence (56.8%). They were associated with occasional use of hookah: to have monthly family income per capita greater than R$ 2,000.00 (p=0.02, OR=1.8, IC95% 1.10-3.13) and to ingest alcoholic beverages (p<0.001, OR=5.6, IC95% 3.50-8.94). The majority (52.3%) reported hookah smoking at home or at friends' homes. Relatives and friends were the main influences for hookah smoking (71.4% of cases). The average age of the first experimentation of hookah was 17.1 years. The majority of the patients, 66.3%, were never instructed by a health professional about the risks of this derivative of tobacco, with dental students receiving the most guidance (43.3%) (p<0.001). Higher proportions of students reporting occasional use of hookah incorrectly answered questions about hookah being harmful to health (p=0.02), about the level of nicotine that is exposed during a hookah session being smaller when compared to the traditional form (p<0.001) and on hookah smoking do not harm, as the impurities of the smoke are filtered by the water placed in the container (p <0.01). Nursing students who reported occasional use of hookah were 2.8 times more likely to present severe or extremely severe symptoms of depression (IC95%=1.07-7.14).Conclusion: The use of hookah among the health area students surveyed was high. Emphasis is given to the importance of prevention and treatment actions directed to the use of hookah in universities, especially to demystify the idea of safety related to this derivative of tobacco.