Smoking behaviour among arts student of a college in Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada

176 Arts students out of 450 students doing their under-graduation in an age range of 17 to 24 years returned a questionnaire designed to test their level of knowledge about smoking, attitude towards smoking and practice of smoking. 96.6% of the respondents were aware of the injurious nature of smoking. Potential to induce lung cancer was known by 93.2% of them, but only 34.1% knew it was a factor for GI malignancy. A higher proportion of males had good knowledge whereas females had moderate knowledge (p = 0.04). The incidence of smoking was 33.1%. A higher proportion of smokers chewed pan and consumed supari. 68.2% of smokers wished to quit smoking. Easy availability (47.7%) and influence of friends (34.1%) were the predominant reasons to smoke. Interestingly, 48% of males felt that smoking women had appeal. Anti smoking campaigns in addition to provision of information has to focus towards a change in attitude to smoking.