The relationship between alcohol use and cigarette smoking in a sample of undergraduate college students

During the decade of the 1990s, smoking prevalence increased nearly 30% in the college student population. Although most college students initiate smoking before the age of 18, recent evidence suggests a sizable minority of undergraduates report starting smoking while in college. This study examined the concurrent use of alcohol and tobacco as well as the relationship between alcohol use and smoking initiation among a sample of undergraduate students attending a large public university in the southwestern United States. We defined three categories of smoking status for this study: never smokers (n=777), experimenters (n=158), and smokers (n=178). Both experimenters and smokers reported consuming significantly more drinks per occasion in the past 28 days and more drinks on one occasion in the past 2 weeks compared to never smokers; however, there was no significant difference between experimenters and smokers on either of these measures of consumption. The results of two multinomial logistic regression models showed that measures of alcohol consumption and drinking frequency were significantly associated with being an experimenter or smoker after controlling for demographic and other drug use covariates. Results of a logistic regression analysis revealed a significant relationship between past year drinking frequency and smoking initiation among respondents who reported that they were not smoking at all 12 months prior to their survey participation. The influence of alcohol consumption on smoking initiation among college students is discussed.