فهرست مطالب mehdi nassr

Cigarette smoking is a highly addictive behavior and nicotine dependence is a well known model for drug dependence. It also acts as a gateway drug for the use of other illicit substances. In 1999, Iran Ministry of health and the national research center carried out a study which revealed that 11.9% of Iranian population use cigarette.

The present study is a cross-sectional household survey which was carried out in 2004.The target population of this study consisted of residents (age>15) of the sixth district of the municipality of Tehran. The sample was selected through multistage stratification and systematic randomization (n= 2705). Data was gathered using face-to-face interviews.

Our study showed that five hundred and forty (19.9%) subjects reported regular use of cigarette sometimes in their life. 381 (14.1%) reported that they were current smokers. The Prevalence of smoking and the mean number of cigarette smoked daily were lower in women compared to men. 74.1% of the smokers reported that they smoked their first cigarette before the age of 25. Only 7.8% reported that they started smoking after the age of 35.

The self-reported lifelong prevalence and the prevalence of current smoking are much lower in Iran compared to many other Middle East countries. Moreover, according to the findings of this study, the number of attempts to quit smoking in Iran is lower than the reported rate in other countries of the region.

Substance misuse is a major public health threat in Iran. The totalnumber of addicts in Iran is estimated to be between 700,000 and 4,000,000.A few limited household studies on the prevalence of substance misuse havebeen performed in Iran. The residents of the sixth district of the municipality of Tehran whowere over the age of 15 were selected as the study population. The samplesize was 2,705. The instrument of the study was face-to-face interviews. 184(6.8%) of the subjects had used at least one substance in theirlives and 142(5.2%) used a substance during the month before theinterviews. 132(4.88%), 10(0.37%), 3(0.11%), 5(0.19%) and 4(15%) of thesubjects reported the use of alcohol, opium, opium residue, heroin, andcannabis respectively during the month before the interviews. The estimate and profile of substance use are different fromother methodologies. This household study indicated lower than expectedprevalence of opioids and higher than expected alcohol use. Indirectestimation methods are probably more appropriate for the prevalence studiesof substance misuse in Iran.