One of the most common problems today that are killing people, all over the world is smoking. Despite widespread knowledge of the health consequences, smoking is common globally. Most of the youngsters start this habit because of stress, personal issues, depression, boredom, and out of their curiosity. The present study aimed at highlight the reasons for smoking amongst the youth of age 18 to 25 years in Delhi.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 70 college students to know their views regarding the reasons for smoking habit. A questionnaire consisting demographic data, respondent smoking status, the reasons for starting and continuing smoking and awareness and opinion towards smoking was used in the present study. Majority of the respondents were non-smokers 41 (58.57%) and 29 (41.42%) smokers.
Among the respondents, 30(73.17%) reported having never tried or experimented smoking and 11(26.82%) respondents tried smoking once or twice.The results showed that 31.03% smokers agreed that they started smoking out of their curiosity, 34.
48% started because they are depressed,34.28% smoked due to peer influence. The reasons given for continuing smoking were an addiction, popularity, peer influence, depression, and pleasure. All the respondents reported that they are aware of passive smoking and negative health impacts of smoking. 78.57% respondents recommended that smoking should be banned.
