Active and passive tobacco smoking by students of medical universities show that medical studies cannot be an effective barrier against continuing or even commencing smoking. The aim of the study was an evaluation of tobacco smoking and passive exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in the Physiotherapy students of Faculty of Military Medicine Medical University of Lodz.
Material and methods: There were 565 Physiotherapy students of between 1-5th year of studies, including 394 women and 171 men (mean age 22.41), who were covered by the questionnaire research. The author's form of the questionnaire consisted of closed questions about demographic data and data on active and passive smoking. Prior to completing the questionnaire each student signed an informed consent as well as had an opportunity to get familiar with the patient's information form and could ask additional questions.
Results: The results analysis of the questionnaire indicated that 21.42% of the studied subjects are active smokers whereas 78.58% - non-smokers. No statistically significant differences in tobacco smoking due to sex have been noticed. The highest percentage of smokers was found on the 2nd and 3rd year of studies. In the group of 444 non-smokers there were as many as 67.1% of passive smokers.
Conclusions: Tobacco smoking rate among Physiotherapy students amounts to 21.42% and is lower than the rate observed in the Polish population. Among non-smoking physiotherapy students there are 67.1% who are exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke. The obtained result does not largely stray from the result for the adult Polish population.