769 International Journal of Progressive Sciences and Technologies (IJPSAT) ISSN: 2509-0119. © 2020 International Journals of Sciences and High Technologies http://ijpsat.ijsht-journals.org Vol. 24 No. 1 December 2020, pp. 202-209 Corresponding Author: G. S. A. Jones 202 Knowledge of Shisha-Aided Flavoured Tobacco Smoking, Health-Risk in Public Universities in Rivers State Gloria Stanley Acra JONES 1 and Dr. John. Osondu ONYEZERE 2 1 Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education Faculty of Education, University of Port Harcourt 2 Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education Faculty of Education, University of Port Harcourt Abstract – The study investigated the knowledge of shisha-aided flavoured tobacco smoking, health-risk in public universities in Rivers State. It is a cross-sectional study carried out among undergraduate students in public universities in Rivers State with population of forty-seven thousand five hundred and seventeen (47,517), from the three (3) public universities in Rivers State, using a sample of one thousand undergraduate students drawn through a multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument used for data collection were 30 items structured questionnaire titled “Knowledge of Shisha-aided Flavoured Tobacco Smoking (KSFTS) which has a reliability coefficient of 0.91 and focus group discussion. Data was analysed using frequency and percentage for the demographic characteristics, while mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while chi-square and 2-way ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses at .05 alpha level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that the respondents have poor knowledge of shisha-aided flavoured tobacco smoking and its health-risks implication. Age had no significant influence on the respondents. The study concluded with the following recommendations that awareness should be created among students on the health-risks implications. On admission of students, during orientations, the universities authorities should marshal modalities to halt the use of shisha and all other forms of tobacco use. Keywords – Knowledge of health-risk of Shisha use, Demographic Variables, Public Universities in Rivers State. I. INTRODUCTION Shisha-aided flavoured tobacco smoking has been recognized as a global public health problem, affecting all age group and is a global threat to life (Aslam, Saleem, German & Qureshi, 2014). Shisha is a device used in smoking flavoured tobacco and is still emerging with evidence that it poses health risks (Taylor-Hays, 2017). Another name for shisha is hookah. Shisha or hookah is a single or multi-stemmed instrument for vaporizing or smoking flavoured tobacco or sometimes cannabis or opium, whose vapor or smoke is passed through a water basin, often glass based before inhalation. Shisha-aided flavoured tobacco smoking is a tobacco smoking method, which comprises of mix fruits or molasses sugar and it is put in a bowl and sucked through a hose with a mouth-piece attached to it (British Heart Foundation, 2016). Globally, tobacco smoking is a preventable cause of morbidity and mortality across the world, but recently a new device popularly called shisha or hookah is used to smoke tobacco in various forms and is gradually gaining immense popularity (Kiran, Bhikhu & Nilesh, 2013). It is common in the Mediterranean area and gradually spreading to the western nations such as Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and United States of America and Southeast Asia, Malaysia because of the ubiquity, shisha-aided