YEREVAN, Armenia — The American University of Armenia Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian College of Health Sciences (TCHS) is pleased to announce that Master of Public Health (MPH) alumna Araz Bourounsouzian (MPH ’26) has published her master’s thesis in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Tobacco Prevention and Cessation. The article, titled “Social and Cognitive Determinants of Cigarette, E-Cigarette, Heated Tobacco Product and Hookah Use Among University Students in Armenia: A Cross-Sectional Study,” provides new evidence on the social and cognitive factors associated with the use of multiple tobacco and nicotine products among young adults in Armenia.
The co-authors of the article are Bourounsouzian’s academic advisors Anya Agopian, MPH, Ph.D., and Varduhi Hayrumyan (MPH’ 16), from TCHS, and Carla J. Berg, Ph.D., MBA, from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
The study surveyed 505 university students aged 18-30 years from four universities in Yerevan, Gyumri, and Vanadzor, making it one of the first studies in Armenia to simultaneously examine cigarette, e-cigarette, heated tobacco product (HTP), and hookah use among university students. Researchers assessed both current tobacco use and intentions to use these products while examining how demographic, social, and cognitive factors, including perceptions, peer tobacco use, and marketing exposure, were associated with the use of different tobacco products. The study found that the pattern of associations differed across tobacco products, with perceptions of harm, addictiveness, and social acceptability emerging as important product-specific correlates of tobacco use and use intentions.
As the tobacco product landscape continues to evolve, particularly with the growing availability of novel nicotine products, the authors emphasize the need for continued research to better understand tobacco use trajectories and inform evidence-based public health policies and interventions in Armenia.
The research was conducted within the broader framework of the U.S. National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center-funded Armenia-U.S. Collaboration to Address Chronic Disease via Education in Social Determinants Science (ACCESS) program. ACCESS aims to build research capacity in the area of chronic diseases — or non-communicable diseases (NCDs) — and their social determinants. The specific aims are to: 1) develop a formal NCD prevention and control research training program and institutional infrastructure; 2) advance Armenia’s national NCD research agenda via mentored research among future NCD research leaders; and 3) catalyze NCD-related research dissemination and knowledge translation to inform policy and practice.
The AUA Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian College of Health Sciences works actively to improve population health and health services in Armenia and the region through interdisciplinary education and development of health professionals to be leaders in public health, nursing, health services research and evaluation, and health care delivery and management.
