ABSTRACT
Smoking is a major public health problem worldwide and a formidable barrier to development in many developing countries. Most studies show that the beginning of smoking is under the age of 18 and teacher's smoking is highly associated with student's smoking. Hence, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the prevalence of cigaraette smoking among male high school teachers in Rasht in 2004. In this cross-sectional study, six hundred male high school teachers were surveyed through anonymous self-reported questionnaire in Rasht from February 2004 to July 2004. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: background information and pattern of cigarette smoking. For data analysis SPSS version 11.5 software and X[2] test and Multivariable Logistic Regression were used. Out of 582 studied subjects 119 [20.4%] were current smokers and 55 [9.4%] were ex-smokers. 70.5% of the smokers smoked over one cigarette per day. Mean age of starting smoking was 19.4 +/- 6.5. No significant association was observed between smoking and marital status, educational level, subject of study, smoker coworkers, regular exercise and observation of physicians' or health workers' smoking. However there was a significant relation between cigarette smoking behavior and sideline [P=0.03], having smoker friends [P=0.0001], observing other teachers' smoking during high school course [P=0.04] and starting smoking [P=0.0001]. In logistic regression effective determinants were having smoker friends [odds ratio: 2.75, CI: 1.2 to 6.1] and starting smoking under the age of 15 [odds ratio: 5.34, CI: 2.38 to 11.95]. Present study shows that cigarette smoking is prevalent among high school teachers and prevention programs should be started as soon as possible. More studies are recommended