Perceptions of Turkish University Students about the Effects of Water Pipe Smoking on Health

Background: The popularity of the water pipe, also referred to as hookah, narghile, shisha or hubble-bubble, has increased tremendously during the past few decades. This study was conducted to determine student water pipe smoking status and perceptions about the effects of water pipe smoking on health in a state university in Ankara. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between September 2014 and January 2015. The data were collected with a questionnaire and "The Scale of Perception about the Effects of Water Pipe Smoking on Health". The data obtained were evaluated in IBM SPSS (version 20.0) statistical package program in computer. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the analyses by checking homogeneity of variances and Student's t-test. Values of p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The total mean score obtained by young people who took part in the study was determined as ($\bar{X}=65.20{\pm}1.25$, min=33, max=75). Upon comparison of the total mean scores obtained by young people from the Scale of Perception about the effects of water pipe smoking on health and gender variable, the scores obtained by the females students were higher than those of the male students with a statistically significant difference (t=7.525, p<0.05). A statistically significant difference was observed between the total mean scores obtained by young people with cigarette and water pipe smoking status (for each, t=-3.731, p<0.05; t=-13.987, p<0.05). Conclusions: In conclusion, university students have wrong knowledge on the dangers of water pipe smoking. There was a high prevalence of using water pipes among university students. Gender significantly affected the perceptions about the effect of water pipe smoking on health in our sample.