Comparison of cigarette and water pipe smoking between physical education and non-physical education students

Physical activity has many advantages such as cardio-respiratory health promotion، prevention of some diseases and improvement of quality of life. In contrast، smoking tobacco products is one of the most important risk factors of non-infectious diseases، especially cardiovascular and cancers and may be influenced by physical activity of people. Therefore، the aim of this study was to compare cigarette and water pipe smoking between physical education and non-physical education students. The target population of this study was all male and female students of Guilan University. The instrument used was the PDUQ questionnaire (Alpha value of 0. 81(. According to Odineski table، the questionnaire was randomly distributed among 144 students of P. E and 386 students of non-P. E. The collected data was analyzed using Chi-square test، and Pearson correlation coefficient (P<0. 05). The results of data analyses indicated that there was no significant relationship between the course and championship history with cigarette and water pipe smoking. Also، cigarette and water pipe smoking was observed more in males than females and the difference was statistically significant (P<0. 001). The most important reason of tendency toward and prevalence of cigarette and water pipe smoking in males was their intimate relationship with smoking friends، and in female it was mostly done for recreation and fun. In this study، the prevalence of smoking was 27. 1 % in P. E males (11. 8 % in females، (30. 1 % in non-P. E males، (and 14. 2%) in females، respectively، indicating that it is high as compared to other areas of the country. Holding educational programs and social interventions at university level seem necessary in order to prevent cigarette and water pipe smoking.