Smoking habits among university students in Florence: Is a medical degree course the right choice?

In Tuscany medical students (MS) seemed to smoke less than nursing students (NS) (Melani et al., 2000), but the prevalence was higher compared to the young Italian population (Ferketich et al., 2008; Tramacere et al., 2009). It is well known that smoking prevention should be focused on young-adult populations (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1994); nonetheless, few studies have surveyed MS as opposed to non-health-related disciplines in this regard (Alexopoulos et al., 2009). The present study evaluated the influence of university choice on smoking habits, using data from a tobacco survey among 194 MS (34.2% males and 65.8% females), 115 agrarian students (AS; 66.7% males and 33.3% females) and 539 jurisprudence students (JS; 33.8% males and 66.2% females) at the beginning of their 1st academic year (2005-2006) at the University of Florence.