Tobacco smoking and frequency of arterial hypertension in students of Poznan universities

: The aim of the study was to assess the tobacco smoking among students of three Poznan universities and its effect on the students' blood pressure. Into the consideration were taken the frequency and duration of tobacco smoking, and the number of cigarettes smoked daily. The study involved 700 students. An appropriate questionnaire was used to collect the data, and blood pressure measurements were taken. The results were statistically analyzed using t-Student and chi2 tests. The results show that the gender and type of the university attended influence the prevalence of tobacco smoking. The percentage of smoking men was significantly higher than the percentage of smoking women. The lowest percentage of smokers was found among the students of the Medical Sciences University as compared with other universities. In addition, some positive correlation between tobacco smoking and the occurrence of arterial hypertension was observed.