Assessment of Tobacco Use Khowledge, Attitude and Practice of " Tehran University of Medical Sciences" Students

Prolonged smoking is a leading behavioral cause of premature mortality and disability, resulting in approximately four million deaths annually worldwide. Base on past studies, mean age for start of cigarette consumption is 20 years old which needs society sensitivity. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding tobacco use of college students in Iran. A modified existing questionnaire originally developed for use in the US was adopted. A Farsi version of the final questionnaire was approved by a bilingual panel of scholars. Iranian participants were students at a large University in Tehran metropolitan. A total of 958 usable surveys were collected. Both descriptive and inferential statistical tests were employed in data analysis. Compared to male participants, Iranian female students scored higher in both knowledge and negative attitude scale of the questionnaire regarding tobacco use. Male respondents also were more likely to smoke cigarettes and use other tobacco products and in heavier quantities. Female students, on the other hand, had a higher rate of starting smoking at age 20 years or older, while their counterparts in the opposite sex did so long before that age. The findings should provide exploratory information about aspects of tobacco use among students (as an important and reference class of the Iranian society), and based on the results, recommendations are made to national health policy makers and health educators for reducing tobacco related risks through improving related knowledge, attitude and practice. The other recommendation is to avoid one limit in this study, and broaden the scope of this survey to other Iranian colleges using more representative and large samples of university students.