The Effects of Smoking on Nutritional Habits and Some Hematological Parameters on Students of Ankara University

Abstract

This study was planned to determine the effects of smoking habits on nutritional habits and on some of the hematological parameters of the university students and to plan contributions on public health. This study was made on randomly selected 152 students studying in the faculties of Ankara University aged 18 and above. Data were collected with questionnaires. Questionnaires included general information about the students, their nutritional habits, height, weight measurements and their food consumption frequencies. All the students ’ within the study of 3 days food consumption records were taken and some hematological parameters were analyzed. In the evaluation of the data SPSS 12 statistical package program was used. For each question tables were made including absolute and % values and necessary arithmetical means were taken. The data were evaluated by considering the gender and smoking habits variables. The BMI mean of the smokers in the study was 21.41±0.29 kg/m2, while it was 22.00±0.36 kg/m2’ in non-smokers. Most of the students started smoking in university period with their families ’ and friends ’ environments influence. Bread, cheese, tomato and yogurt were the food that was mostly consumed among all the students everyday. The mean erythrocyte (4.45±0.03 %10^6/L), hemoglobin (12.95±0.11 g/dL) and hematocrit (%38.38±0.34) levels of female students are lower than male students while their leukocyte (7.69±0.23%10^3/L) and thrombocyte (275.04±7.18 %10^3/L) levels are higher. It was found that smoking female and male students’ erythrocyte (female 4.46±0.05 %10A6/L, male 5.35±0.08 %10A6/L), hemoglobin (female 13.12±0.14 g/dL, male 15.55±0.19 g/dL) and hematocrit (female %39.01±0.49, male %45.97±0.63)levels were higher compared to non smoking students.