An E-Mail Assessment of Undergraduates' Attitudes Toward Smoking

Responses from 513 of 1,000 randomly selected undergraduate students who were sent an e-mail questionnaire, about cigarette smoking were analyzed. Thirteen percent of the respondents identified themselves as smokers. No statistically significant differences were observed between smokers and non-smokers and year in college, sex, age, race, or having attended public or private high schools. Ninety-eight percent of the respondents considered themselves knowledgeable about adverse health consequences of smoking, yet 39.1% of current smokers seriously considered stopping smoking, and 11.5% of current nonsmokers intended to start smoking. The preferred quitting method of smokers and ex-smokers was stopping all at once ("cold turkey"). Fifty-two percent of the smokers did not want professional assistance to stop smoking; 40% of the nonsmokers wanted information on second-hand smoke.