Shisha Prevalence and Perception amongst universit

1. Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form

Dear Participant,

You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve, if there is anything that is not clear or you would like more information, please contact :-

Stuart Clack (Undergraduate Researcher) at:- [email protected]
Lynne Jalalian (Project Supervisor) at:- [email protected]

Background and purpose of the study ?

Shisha popularity has been significantly increasing over the past two decades since the introduction of manufactured maassel, which is a sugar rich fruit flavoured tobacco. This has led to its successful integration from the Middle Eastern countries into the western lifestyle with noted insurgence in the USA and now the UK.

It is now estimated 100 million people smoke shisha daily, with studies indicating the prevalence is ever increasing and more pertinently in the UK, newspapers have reported that there has been an 210% increase in shisha café since 2007 catapulting shisha smoking, into one of the emerging epidemic public health problem due not seen since the original cigarette epidemic.

The aim of the study is to understand the prevalence and perceptions of shisha smoking amongst University students in the UK, to analyse if the problem has increased when compared to previous UK studies and worldwide countries. The study will analyse two demographically different universities students within the south east of the UK and will take place over a two-week period.

Why have I been invited ?

The study will focus on students as it has been documented the majority of shisha smokers in the UK are young people aged typically between 18-26 years old, In additional comparable studies have focused on University students therefore this has been chosen to critically analyse differences nationally and globally on prevalence and risk perception of shisha smoking.

Completion of the questionnaire will be taken as your consent to take part, it is expected that all ten questions are answered truthfully. The questionnaire has been designed to be very simple and easy to complete and should not take longer than 5-10 minutes. All information that is collected about you during the course of the research is completely anonymous, but all data received will be stored, analysed and reported in compliance with the Data Protection legislation.

Middlesex University, School of Science and Technology, Natural Sciences Ethics sub-Committee has fully agreed the ethics and rationale of the study. The completed report will be finalised and completed by the beginning of May 2013, any interested parties can email me directly to express any interest in receiving the results and discussion sections.

Thank you for help, to confirm your participation in this study, press the "I Agree" buttom below where you will be guided into the questionnaire.

I Agree