Smoking Stages in an Iranian Adolescent Population

The aim of this study is determining the prevalence of smoking stages in adolescents of Tabriz city (northwest of Iran) and identifying the personal, environmental, and psychological factors relating to cigarette smoking. Fifty-seven high schools were randomly selected, and 4903 students were completed a self-administered questionnaire about cigarette smoking and the related risk factors. The association of independent variables with cigarette smoking was evaluated using the ordinal logistic regression model. In total, 17.3% of the participants were experimenters (95% CI: 15.8-18.9) and 5.0% were regular smokers (95% CI: 3.7-6.2). The results showed that the male gender (OR=2.92; CI: 1.94-4.77), age (OR=1.27; CI: 1.02-1.64), having general risk taking behavior (OR=1.50; CI: 1.02-2.21), presence of a cigarette smoker in the family (OR=1.78; CI: 1.23-2.54), friendship with close cigarette smoker friends (OR=2.52; CI: 1.65-3.86), substance abuse experience (OR=8.27; CI: 2.61-25.61), attitude toward cigarette smoking (OR=1.22; CI: 1.10-1.27) and positive thinking about cigarette smoking (OR=1.05; CI: 1.01-1.14) are associated to cigarette smoking in adolescents. The cigarette smoking prevalence is minimal in Tabriz city adolescents, especially in girls; but the experimenter prevalence is considerable. Findings of this study justifies adopting more serious measures in the pre-adolescence and adolescence period.