[How smoking influences the young men's lifestyle at the beginning of the 21st century].

BACKGROUND

The goal of this work is to assess various factors of young men's lives among smokers and non-smokers. A sample of young men, volunteers, conscripts (servicemen) at the time, was studied within the presented work.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A questionnaire--screening protocol--was filled in by 104 young men, 83 of them subsequently underwent a clinical examination. The participants expressed their interest in the research and the chosen form of primary prevention during directed talks; 64 participants took part in these talks.

RESULTS

The analysis of the results showed that more than a half of young men smoke. There was a strong statistically significant association between smoking and incomplete households. 51.3% of the research sample was addicted to nicotine. Smokers consume more coffee, and drink more alcoholic beverages. Highly statistically significant association was demonstrated between smoking and especially wine-drinking while a statistically significant association was also proven between smoking and beer- and distillate-drinking, It was also verified that smokers drink larger quantities of alcoholic beverages and get drunk more often. Greater use of marijuana and hashish along with using drugs even in the military was proven in smokers. No link was discovered between smoking and BMI but it was demonstrated that smokers have an average amount of physical activity and their weekly frequency of physical activity is lower than in non-smokers. A strong statistically significant association between smoking and lower age of first sexual intercourse and the number of sexual partners (smokers had 5.69 partners, non-smokers 3.29 partners on average).

CONCLUSIONS

Smoking significantly affects the lifestyle of an individual in all aspects of life and lifestyle. The chosen method of work including the assessment and the possibility of making use of primary prevention should be reproducible and usable for a wide range or our young population.