Determinants of tobacco use transitions in smoker nursing students in Catalonia: A prospective longitudinal study.

The use of emerging tobacco and nicotine products affects tobacco use behaviors among college students. Thus, we aimed to examine transitions in tobacco use patterns and identify their predictors among smokers in a cohort of nursing students in Catalonia (Spain). We conducted a prospective longitudinal study of Catalan nursing students between 2015-2016 and 2018-2019. We examined transitions in tobacco use patterns between baseline and follow-up among smokers from: 1) daily to non-daily smoking, 2) non-daily to daily smoking, 3) cigarette-only use to poly-tobacco use, 4) poly-tobacco use to cigarette-only use, 5) between products, 6) reducing consumption by ≥5 cigarettes per day (CPD); and 7) quitting smoking. We applied a Generalized Linear Model with a log link (Poisson regression) and robust variance to identify predictors of reducing cigarette consumption by ≥5 CPD and quitting smoking, obtaining both crude and adjusted (APR) prevalence ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Among daily smokers at baseline, 12.1% transitioned to non-daily smoking at follow-up, while 36.2% of non-daily smokers shifted to daily smoking. Among cigarette-only users, 14.2% transitioned to poly-tobacco use, while 48.4% of poly-tobacco users switched to exclusive cigarette use. Among all smokers (daily and non-daily smokers), 60.8% reduced their cigarette consumption by ≥5 CPD and 28.3% quit smoking. Being a non-daily smoker (APR=0.33; 95% CI 0.19-0.55) and having lower nicotine dependence (APR=0.78; 95% CI 0.64-0.96) were inversely associated with reducing cigarette consumption, while being a non-daily smoker (APR=1.19; 95% CI: 1.08-1.31) was directly associated with quitting smoking. Nursing students who smoked experienced diverse transitions in tobacco use patterns over time. Evidence-based tobacco use preventive and cessation interventions are needed to tackle tobacco use among future nurses.

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© 2024 Laroussy K. et al.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors have each completed and submitted an ICMJE form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, related to the current work. All authors report that since the initial planning of the work this research was funded by the Consell de Col·legis d’Infermeres i Infermeres de Catalunya (Grant CCIC 2016) and the Directorate of Research and Universities, Government of Catalonia (Grant 2021SGR00906). E. Fernández, C. Martínez and M. Fu report that in the past 36 months they received funding for the scientific activity developed by the Consolidated Research Group on Epidemiology, Prevention and Tobacco Control of IDIBELL from the Ministry of Research and Universities, Government of Catalonia (2021SGR00906). They have also received Institutional support to IDIBELL from the CERCA Programme, Generalitat de Catalunya. A. Peruga reports that in the past 36 months he has received Grants or contracts from the National Health Fund (Grant 21FIS031-PI20/00972) and the National Plan on Drugs (Grant MSP21006). He also reports serving as Secretary of the Tobacco-Free Aragonese Society.