Assessment of Perception of Medical Students in Regard to Links between Tobacco or Alcohol Use and Cancer

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> The aim of this study was to assess cancer awareness among medical students in Saudi Arabiatoward tobacco and alcohol use as risk factors. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: A cross-sectional survey from October toDecember 2014, covering 1200 medical students, was performed. <br/><b>Results</b>: Of the total, 975 (81.25%) responded.The male to female ratio was 1.00:7.125. 96/975 (9.8%) had smoked tobacco in their lifetime, and 51/975 (5.23%)were alcoholic beverage consumers. On asking them whether tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption can causecancer, only 4/975 (0.4%) and 14/975 (1.43%) answered no for smoking and alcohol, respectively. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>:The prevalence of smoking and alcohol use is very low among medical students, which might be due to highfemale contribution besides social stigma. The prevalence of second-hand smoke (SHS) was found to be veryhigh in Hail region.