The roots of smoking habit in students of medicine and the ways of its prevention.

A questionnaire study on smoking and on the attitudes towards it has been carried out in 667 medical students. The study revealed a lower prevalence of smoking in the studied group than in general population (regular smokers: 7.3 per cent; occasional smokers: 14.3 per cent). The study confirmed the importance of family background for the initiation of smoking habit as well as the association of smoking habit with alcohol consumption. Some of the results were compared with similar study carried out on the same faculty of medicine ten years ago. The goal of the study was not only to gather the data on smoking as an important risk factor of cardiovascular diseases but also to verify the used methods, to improve the system of collecting information and to promote the organisation of such population studies.