ABSTRACT
Background: Financial burden due to tobacco use is known all over the world. A high percentage of preventable cancers, respiratory and non respiratory diseases are due to cigarette smoking. Mortality rate due to cigarette smoking is approximately 4 million deaths per year at the present time; this figure is going to reach 10 million deaths per year by the year 2020 if the present trend continues. What makes countries and different districts different from each other in regard to the severity of the risks of cigarette smoking is the prevalence of cigarette smoking, mean age of starting smoking, and mean number of cigarettes smoked daily in that area
Materials and Methods: A weighted representative sample of 310 inhabitants of North rural area [Babol city] was selected randomly in the year 2002. The data were collected by face to face interview and daily smoking prevalence was 28.2% [The standardized rate directly according to the sex is about 17.15%]
Results: The mean age of starting smoking in smokers was 21.4%. More than 80% of persons stated that they had started smoking before the age of 25 years. The mean number of cigarettes smoked daily was 16.8 cigarettes per day
Conclusion: Female gender [p <0.000], having higher level of education [p=0.023], and increased age [p=0.041] were recognized as the distracting factors from cigarette smoking