cigarette use and its predicting factors among male high school students

cigarette use and its predicting factors among male high school students moeini b* , allahverdipour h received: 25 april, 2010 accepted: 27 july, 2010 abstract background & aims: tobacco use among adolescents is one of the most important preventable problems that was known as a gateway drug to the use of other much more dangerous substances as marijuana and opium. etiology of tobacco use initiation would be an important part of preventative programs. the purpose of this study was to determine tobacco use status among male high school students and also the predicting factors for tobacco use. materials & methods: a total of 900 male high school students were randomly selected for sampling. participants were junior high school students in malayer, iran. the data were gathered via questionnaires. the pupils completed questionnaires by self-reporting method. results: approximately 126 participants (14%) reported lifelong-smoking. the average age range to start smoking was 9-12. parent-teen violence, truancy, leisure, peer pressure were the most important factors that led to smoking. conclusion: behaviors are acquirable, trainable, and modifiable. for preventative programs, it is necessary to identify adolescents’ smoking risk factors and to focus on adolescents’ health problems. keywords: adolescents, cigarette smoking, predicting factors address: department of public health, hamadan university of medical sciences, hamadan, iran tel: (+98)811-8260661 e-mail: [email protected]