Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge of dental hygiene students on smoking and their state of smoking in an attempt to assist dental hygienists to develop good anti-smoking education programs, as dental hygienists should play a critical role in conducting an anti-smoking campaign and education. The subjects in this study were dental hygiene students in six different colleges located in Seoul and Gyeonggi province. After a survey was conducted from April to June, 2007, the answer sheets from 1,322 students were gathered and analyzed. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. As for the reality of smoking, 82.7% were nonsmokers, and 12.2% had been smokers in the past, 5.1% were smokers, which accounted for 5%. Regarding when they started smoking, 47.1% and 35.3% started it in middle school and high school days respectively. So 80% or more began smoking as middle and high schoolers. As to a daily amount of smoking, 36.8% smoked five or less cigarettes, and 22.1% smoked six to 10 cigarettes, 14.7 % smoked 11 to 15 cigarettes. Concerning motivation of smoking, 51.5% did it out of curiosity, and 26.6% intended to get rid of stress. Among the smokers, 80.9% had ever tried to quit smoking, and as for the reason, 51.0 % wanted not to develop a disease in the future, and 25.0% weren't in good health. In regard to what made them fail to give up smoking, 49.0% answered they were increasingly stressed out, and 24.0 % were tempted by others. 2. As to the impact of smoking on the body and illness, the largest group believed it affected unborn babies, and the second largest group was aware of the harmfulness of secondhand smoking. The third largest group thought it exercised an influence on the lung and respiratory ailments, and the fourth largest group believed it was detrimental to health. The fifth greatest group thought tar was harmful to the body. They didn't know well about whether smoking deteriorated the sense of taste, but were well cognizant of the harmfulness of smoking. 3, Their knowledge on the impact of smoking on the body and diseases was evaluated by academic year and in consideration of whether they were smokers or not. And the largest number of them knew the best about smoking's impact on unborn babies and the harmfulness of secondhand smoking, regardless of academic year and whether they were smokers or not. They weren't well aware of its impact on weakening the sense of taste.

Keywords

• smoking;
• knowledge;
• dental hygiene students

• 흡연;
• 지식;
• 치위생과;