Does going to university affect tobacco consumption?

Abstract

The current literature review attempts to demonstrate factors which have been studied and shown to form the basis of tobacco consumption in the university population. Its objective is to understand, through the literature, which variables determine tobacco consumption in this population as well as if positive or negative changes exist in relation to the change from secondary education to the university, that is to say if use is started, maintained, increased or decreased A literature review was conducted of Chilean and foreign research related to tobacco consumption during university studies and observed behavioral changes in this population. The following data bases were used: Knowledge Alert, Cochrane systematic reviews, Medline, Pubmed, Proquest research library, PsyclNFO, UpToDate@, and Cinhal. The search was limited to full text in Spanish or English. Exclusion criteria were studies that linked tobacco consumption with medical conditions, physical or psychiatric, that did not include statistical analysis, and studies realized in adult populations even if they included university students. Understanding the variables that determine any type of tobacco consumption in university students can assist in the development of specific and effective prevention strategies in order to stop consumption. This in turn contributes to the fulfillment of one of the objectives of university spaces, which is to sensitize and educate about "Self-care and Risk Behaviors for Drug Use", in order to stimulate the integral development of youth.