Abstract

Objective: Thirdhand smoke refers to the residual tobacco smoke that remains in the environment after tobacco use, which continues to persist and exert harmful effects by forming hazardous compounds through various reactions. This study aimed to evaluate the awareness of medical faculty students regarding thirdhand smoke.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between January 23 and February 28, 2025. Necessary permissions and ethical committee approval were obtained prior to the study. The sample size was calculated as 278 students using the OpenEpi program, and the study was completed by administering a questionnaire under supervision to 280 students. The questionnaire included sociodemographic questions, smoking status, questions related to smoking and thirdhand smoke, as well as the Beliefs About Thirdhand Smoke Scale (BATHS). Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 software package. Accordingly, the Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis variance analysis were applied for statistical analyses. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant in all evaluations.

Results: Of the students, 55.0% were female and 23.2% were first-year students. In the study group, 19.4% reported smoking, and 82.5% stated that they had not heard the term “thirdhand smoke” before. A total of 58.6% of the students reported that smoking was not allowed in their living environment, while 71.8% stated that smoking was not permitted in the vehicles they used or traveled in. When asked about the diseases that THS could cause, 67.5% mentioned respiratory diseases, 56.4% reported an increased risk of cancer, and 55.0% indicated cardiovascular diseases. The median total score of the Beliefs About Thirdhand Smoke Scale (BATHS) among students was 37 (range: 9–45). There were no statistically significant differences in the median total and subscale BATHS scores according to gender, place of residence, year of study,economic status, smoking status, or whether smoking occurred in their living environment (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: A significant proportion of the students stated that they had not heard the term THS before. Moreover, various sociodemographic variables and smoking status did not significantly influence their beliefs regarding thirdhand smoke.

Keywords: tobacco smoke pollution, medical students, public health

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Copyright and license

Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

Gündoğdu, S. N., Baran, A., & Boz, G. (2026). Investigation of Medical Students’ Awareness of Thirdhand Cigarette Smoke Medical Students’. Turkish Journal of Tobacco Control, 6(1), 25-33. https://doi.org/10.64511/TJTC.2026.41