Influence of some socio-demographic factors on smoking status of academicians.

Among many habits of life style, smoking is one which is acquired by the children during their years at school. To monitor smoking habits of teachers, 573 teachers of Lucknow University were surveyed with the help of a questionnaire based on WHO guidelines. Overall 21.4% and 12.3% of male teachers were found to be current and ex-smoker. respectively while none of the female teachers reported to be a smoker. Significantly higher prevalence of smoking was observed among teachers of sixth decade, muslims and unmarried. Engineering faculty had the maximum proportion (30.2%) of current smokers followed by medicine (25.2%). The study also found a significantly increasing trend of smoking in teachers according to the smoking status of their parents, siblings, children and best friends. There is a need to create smoking cessation opportunities for teachers so as to establish a non-smoking environment in the schools and colleges.

Factors influencing the initiation, continuation and cessation of smoking.

Smoking is complexely related to various aspects of life style. A survey conducted among 573 teachers of Lucknow University to identify the various factors influencing the smoking habit revealed that friends played a significant role in initiation of smoking and its continuation. Significantly higher proportion of current smokers used only filter cigarettes. Majority of ex-smokers were successfully able to stop smoking in the first attempt, the most common reason for them to stop being health related. Compared to this, almost half of the current smokers stated that they were never advised to stop smoking by anyone and they had never made an attempt to quit. The results suggest that creating an awareness among smokers about the health hazards may encourage them to stop smoking.