Prevalence of and factors associated with smoking among Japanese medical students

Background: The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with smoking among Japanese medical students, to help promote effective antismoking measures in this population. Methods: From the 80 university medical schools in Japan, 20 were randomly selected and invited to participate in our survey. The survey focused on medical students and employed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Information on each university's antismoking measures was obtained using a separate questionnaire administered to teaching staff. The survey was conducted from December 2006 through March 2007. Factors associated with smoking were identified by using the chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 1619 valid surveys were returned. The overall prevalence of smoking was 13.7% (18.1% among men and 5.1% among women). Factors associated with smoking among medical students were male sex, enrollment at a private medical university, smoking by siblings, alcohol consumption, coffee consumption, insomnia, and less than 6 hours of sleep per night. Conclusions: Antismoking education must be further promoted to Japanese medical students, with consideration given to the factors associated with smoking behavior found in the present study.