Introduction:
The use of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances among the young population is a phenomenon that has increased steadily in the last decades. The use of these products has several short- and long-term implications for the health of users. The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant consequences for the use of tobacco and other substances especially among youngsters. This study aimed to assess the changes in tobacco and other substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods:
This is a cross-sectional study conducted from April to June 2022 among Vlora University students, in Albania. Based on the needs of the current work, parts of the C19 ISWS Questionnaire were translated, adapted, and used. Data were collected online through Google Forms. Dissemination of the questionnaire was conducted through institutional student emails as well as on different social media platforms. Data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics 21.

Results:
In total 210 students took part in the study with 53.3% of them being females and a mean age of 23.98 (SD=2.873). Among the participants, 33.3% were smokers, 7.1% were ex-smokers and the rest of them (59.5%) did not smoke. There were some changes in tobacco consumption before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In comparison before and during the pandemic, there was an increase of 5.2% in those who didn’t smoke and a slight increase (1.9%) in those who smoked daily. Additionally, there is a decrease of 4.3% and 2.9% of those who smoke once per week and more than once per week respectively. Similar differences have been observed also in the number of smoked cigarettes. The consumption of other substances (like marijuana) has decreased during the pandemic). Key factors for changing their behavior towards tobacco consumption were fear of getting infected with COVID-19, health concerns, cost of the product, quarantine/ social distance, etc.

Conclusions:
This study shows that the number of nonsmokers decreased during the pandemic period. Healthcare systems need to exploit this situation to provide regular health advice and assistance for remaining quit.