Tobacco use behaviors on college campuses in Texas: What, where, and who.

North, Caroline; Grossberg, Lou Ann; Loukas, Alexandra

Purpose: Examine tobacco use on college campuses by assessing: (1) types of tobacco products used, (2) where they are most commonly used, and (3) the sociodemographic characteristics of students most likely to use on campus. Method: Participants were a convenience sample of 3,575 18- to 25-year-old enrolled in 14 Texas colleges during Spring 2021 who used at least one tobacco product in the past 30-days. Results: Over 60% of participants used tobacco on their campus, and among these, nearly 93% used electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) on campus. Common campus locations for tobacco use included outdoors (85.0%), dormitories (53.9%), and bathrooms (44.5%). Older young adults, males, those from a college with a partial tobacco policy, and current ENDS users were more likely than their peers to have ever used tobacco on campus. Conclusion: Tobacco use on college campuses is common, underscoring the need for enhanced monitoring and enforcement of tobacco-free policies.

TEXAS; CROSS-sectional method; RISK-taking behavior; RESEARCH funding; UNIVERSITIES & colleges; STATISTICAL sampling; LOGISTIC regression analysis; ELECTRONIC cigarettes; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; MULTIVARIATE analysis; CHI-squared test; ODDS ratio; TOBACCO products; COLLEGE students; SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC factors; DATA analysis software; CONFIDENCE intervals

Journal of American College Health, 2025, Vol 73, Issue 1, p51

0744-8481

Academic Journal

10.1080/07448481.2023.2214245