Cigarette Smoking: Health Effects Awareness among Sandwich Undergraduates, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Medical experts warns that if the current rate of tobacco use by young 
people continues, five million of today’s children will die of smokingrelated illnesses in their later years. This study aimed to assess the level 
of awareness of lung cancer, heart disease and ulcer disease as an effect 
of cigarette smoking among sandwich undergraduates, the University of 
Ilorin, Nigeria. The study used a descriptive cross-sectional survey which 
involved the use of a Multi-stage sampling procedure to select three 
hundred and eleven sandwich undergraduates across the nine departments of the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin. The results 
revealed that 66.6% of the respondents had knowledge that lung 
cancer is an effect of cigarette smoking, while 33.4% do not know, 
71.1% of the respondents had knowledge that heart disease is an effect 
of cigarette smoking while 28.9% do not know, 41.8% had the
knowledge that ulcer disease is an effect of cigarette smoking while 
58.2% of the respondents do not know that ulcer disease can be an 
effect of cigarette smoking. The research outcome indicated that there 
is a need to enlighten sandwich undergraduates on the health 
consequences of cigarette smoking to enable them to desist from the 
act.