For many students, going to university gives them an opportunity explore, meet new people and gain new experiences.
But there is also a chance that these students can pick up new habits, such as smoking tobacco.
According to 2009 data, in Burkina Faso, 18.7% of students between the ages of 13 and 15 had already smoked cigarettes by the time they went to university.
Of these, 31% are boys and 7% are girls. Additionally, 16.8% declared that they consumed a tobacco product.
There are many reasons for this uptake. Parents and role models smoking and regular outings with friends where they are exposed to new habit are some of the factors that promote this consumption. This is because tobacco use in the presence of young people has a ripple effect.
Understanding why students take up smoking is important to tailor interventions for them.
Mahamadou Barro of Joseph Ki-Zerbo University will set out to research the prevalence and actual use of tobacco among first year students at his university. He is a research assistant at the Institute for Research in Health Sciences in Burkina Faso.
Barro is one of 12 African researchers who has been awarded a USD5000 grant to conduct research under the Tobacco Control Research Agenda, hosted by the Center for Tobacco Control in Africa.
The research agenda has identified eight priority areas for tobacco control.
The study aims to determine the prevalence of intention and actual use of tobacco and their predictors via a cognitive social model.
The university is a catch-all that brings together people from diverse backgrounds. For some, it may be their first contact with the big city and the majority find themselves without parental supervision for the very first time.
“It is this change in social environment and the temptation of the habits of the big city that justifies our interest in the student population, especially in the early years,” said Barro in his research proposal.
“There is concern that this could represent a mode of entry into smoking.” The analyzes carried out will make it possible to specify the determinants specific to these two groups and the knowledge resulting from these studies will make it possible to develop health promotion interventions.