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

ABSTRACT

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