Abstract

Background:Inhaling the fumes and hydrocarbon vapors produced by slowly burning tobacco in cigarettes is referred to as cigarette smoking. As a result, the study’s goal was to find out when young people in Hawassa, Ethiopia, started smoking and what reasons influenced them to do so.

Methods: From April 1 to April 30/2022, a community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Hawassa, Ethiopia. Kaplan-Meier (KM) analyses were used to assess the likelihood of cigarette smoking at a particular age. With the outcome variable of having ever smoked a cigarette before and the follow-up period of age, the Cox proportional hazards model was used. In addition, logistic regression was used to assess potential cigarette smoking predictors.

Result: Age (AOR, 95%CI 1.56 (1.03, 2.38), believing that smoke from other people does not affect me (AOR, 95%CI, 0.03 (0.001, 0.85), and living with people who smoke (AOR, 95%CI, 0.02 (0.002, 0.242), are all characteristics linked to cigarette smoking, according to multivariate analysis. Cox proportional hazards model for youth who had ever smoked cigarettes using age as a follow-up period showed the youth who drink alcohol is more likely to have a shorter time to begin smoking than those who did not ever drink alcohol (AHR) (95%CI)) =6.22 (1.60, 24.21)

Conclusion: Cigarette smoking is found to be substantially associated with factors such as age, believing smoke from other people does not damage me and living with individuals who smoke.
Knowledge of the health implications of cigarette smoking did not prevent smoking, and we propose that more research be done on the relationship between knowledge of the health impacts of smoking and smoking behavior. More research is needed to determine the impact of living with smokers on one’s smoking status.

Keywords: Youth; Cigarettes smoking; Ethiopia