Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of E-Cigarettes among Undergraduate Dental Students

Background: The electronic cigarette (e-cigarette), first developed in China in 2003, is a battery-powered nicotine delivery device that provides inhaled doses of vaporized nicotine solution and is designed to look and feel like a traditional cigarette.Electronic cigarettes have garnered much attention among the public in recent years due to rising sales and contentious harm-reduction debates.

Aim: The study aims at assessing the awareness, knowledge, attitude and practices of E-cigarettes among undergraduate dental students.

Materials and Method: A cross sectional study was conducted amongundergraduate dental students in Chennai. Following convenience non-randomized sampling of 150 dental students were selected. A self administrated questionnaire was distributed and descriptive data in terms of frequency and percentage were analysed using SPSS software.

Results: Dental students who received questionnaire were returned the completely filled forms. Of these 75 (50%) were males and 75 (50%) were females. The age group of the study subjects ranged from 18-23 years with majority of study subjects in 22-24 years. The awareness about E-cigarettes among study subjects were yes (73.3%), No (22.7%). The study subjects perception about composition of e-cigarettes were nicotine (16.7%), diethyl glycol/propyl (10.7%), glycerol (3.3%), all of the above (38%), unaware (31.3%).Out of 150 study subjects, 64% of subjects mentioned that e-cigarettes help to quit smoking where as No (10%), unaware (26%).

Conclusion: It can be concluded that majority of the dental students were well aware of e-cigarettes, but most of them lack the knowledge on composition of e-liquid, working mechanism, health related risk and also lack in attitudes of the dental students towards e-cigarettes.