ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF SMOKING ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF STUDENTS OF SMOLENSK STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY
Objective. The study was conducted to assess the quality of life of smoking and non-smoking students of Smolensk State Medical University. Methods. The study was carried out with the participation of 310 1-6 year students of Smolensk State Medical University, 225 (72.6%) women and 85 (27.4%) men, using a questionnaire of respondents with a validated WHO QL-26 questionnaire recommended by WHO. The work with the data was carried out in the Microsoft Excel 2007 tabular editor using the AtteStat 12.0.5 program. The following data were entered from the questionnaire of each respondent: gender, course, presence or absence of smoking, the number of points for each area and the total number of points as an indicator of the overall quality of life (QOL). Using the Kendall correlation criterion, the interdependence of addiction to smoking and 4 areas of QOL were assessed: "Mental and physical well-being", "Self-perception", "Microsocial support", "Social well-being" with a given 95% confidence interval. The reliability of differences in the level of QOL depending on the gender and course of study of respondents with a given confidence interval of 95% was determined using the Fisher angular transformation coefficient (φ). Results. It was found that the proportion of smoking students among men is greater than among women. A weak inverse correlation was revealed between addiction to smoking and the level of mental and physical well-being of medical students. A weak direct correlation was found between addiction to smoking and microsocial support of students. The proportion of smokers among students with high scores in the field of "Self-perception" was higher than among students with middle and low scores in this field. Conclusion. Smoking does not affect the level of the overall quality of life of medical students, but has a negative impact on the subjective assessment of their mental and physical well-being. Addiction to smoking increases the level of subjective assessment by medical students of their microsocial support and self-perception, being a significant factor of socialization in the youth environment. To reduce addiction to smoking among medical students, it is necessary to develop comprehensive measures to improve adaptation to study at a medical university, including all elements of the student cluster: learning environment, social well-being, recreation, accessibility of elements of a healthy lifestyle.