qualitative study on a 30-year trend of tobacco use and tobacco control programmes in Islamic Republic of Iran

We conducted in-depth interviews with key tobacco control policy-makers to explore their views and opinions of trends in tobacco use and the effectiveness of tobacco control programmes over the past 3 decades. A qualitative interview study was conducted in 2014 using a grounded theory approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with 86 key tobacco control policy-makers and data collection was based on principles of saturation. The core code "tobacco consumption and its control programme" was extracted and its related themes were listed. After review and classification by an expert panel, 9 categorized codes emerged. The final 31 codes were ordered according to their conceptual differentiations. Overall, tobacco consumption was constant over the past 3 decades; however it was increasing in females and young people and decreasing in older people; hookah consumption was increasing. A positive outcome is that tobacco use is now viewed negatively in the Islamic Republic of Iran, largely due to tobacco control programmes but the current situation is still not ideal and a comprehensive tobacco control law is needed

WHO MPOWER tobacco control scores in the Eastern Mediterranean countries based on the 2011 report

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to quantify the implementation of MPOWER tobacco control policies among Eastern Mediterranean Region countries. Information was obtained from the 2011 WHO MPOWER report. A checklist was designed and its scoring was agreed by Iranian and International tobacco control specialists. Seven questions were scored from 0-4 and 3 from 0-3. The 22 countries were ranked by their total score on a scale of 0 to 37. The highest scores were achieved by the Islamic Republic of Iran, Egypt and Jordan 29, 28 and 26 respectively. Twelve of the countries [55%] scored more than half of the possible score [19]. The lowest and highest scores for all countries summed were on sections related to banning smoking in public places [18] and tobacco advertising bans [66] respectively. Compliance with smoke-free policies was especially low. MPOWER programmes are accepted in the Region but there is considerable room for improvement Input from countries based on their successes and challenges is needed to strengthen the programmes

[ effect of family on cigarette consumption among high school students in Tehran-2003]

Cigarette is the first cause of morbidity and mortality in the world that can be prevented. Since the family has an essential role in forming the character of teenagers, evaluating the relationship between cigarette consumption of family members and teenager's smoking is very important. For this purpose, a study was designed based on WHO and GYST questionnaires in which 1095 high school students were randomly selected from different areas of Tehran city in the years 2002 and 2003 of this study showed that 28.9% of students [25.5% male and 30.8% female] were occasional smokers [P=0.07] and 4.4% of students [6.01% male and 1.6% female] were daily smokers [P=0.001]. 23.6% of students whose family members didn't smoke, were occasional smokers whereas 53.4% of students who had one or more smokers in their family, were occasional smokers [P=0.0001]. The frequency of daily smokers among the students were 2.6% and 14.3% respectively [P<0.0001]. 27.3% of students who lived with both parents smoked occasionally but in students who lived with one of their parents it increased to 52.4% [P<0.0001]. The results of regression analysis show that training and encouraging family members in regard to smoking cessation and also having a stable family environment are very important factors to prevent the initiation and continuation of smoking in teenagers