Introduction:
Smoking among adolescents and young adults is epidemic. This study aims to evaluate the rate of smoking and the knowledge and attitudes on smoking cessation techniques among health-profession students in a University.

Methods:
This cross sectional study was conducted among 338 (70.4%) first 3-year students of the Faculty of Medicine (FM) and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation (SPTR) in Pamukkale University during January 2010.

Results:
A total of 338 students participated in the study; 177(52.4%) from the FM and 161 (47.6%) from SPTR. Of all smokers (20.8%), 14.9% were current smokers. The prevalance of current cigarette smoking was higher among male students (22.9%) than female students (6.1%) (p<0.001). The prevalance of current cigarette smoking increased significantly with age (p<0.001) and grade (p=0.029). Students who had smokers in their family (19.3%) were more likely to smoke than others (10.1%) (p=0.001). 36 students (76.6%) have tried to quit smoking and 29 (60.4%) wanted to quit smoking in these days. 45.5% showed middle and higher nicotine dependence. 56.4% found useful to consider an on-campus smoking cessation clinic and 57.2% found the idea of peer-assisted smoking cessation useful.

Conclusions:
On campus smoking cessation clinics, and besides physicians and psychologists, peer-assisted smoking cessations approach may be useful in the effort of smoking cessation of university students.