Investigating Bushehr city adolescents’ tobacco use and the factors related to it, year 2019

Nowadays, tobacco use among adolescents has become one of the main factors threatening society’s health. The present research aims at investigating Bushehr city adolescents’ tobacco use and the factors pertinent to it.

In this Descriptive-Analytical research, 716 students were selected by random cluster sampling method among the 2nd-grade high school students in Bushehr in 2019. Data collection tools include demographic information forms and questions regarding tobacco consumption status. The collected data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney Tests, and Chi-Square Tests in terms of the type of the variable. The level of significance was considered less than 0.05 in all cases.

The average age of the participants of the research was 17.03±0.83 and the prevalence of tobacco use among the students was 24.9%. There was a significant relationship between smoking tobacco and the following factors, having smokers in the house (P<0.001), smokers among the close relatives (P=0.004), hookah (qalyan) smokers in the family (P<0.001), hookah smokers among the close relatives (P<0.001), hookah smoker friends (P<0.001), having a job to earn money (P=0.004), and the amount of pocket money (P<0.001).

The amount of tobacco use in the present research was significant. Being associated with smoker friends, and the family members or close relatives who smoke increases the risk of smoking tobacco. It is recommended that the families shall first stop using tobacco as much as possible or at least not smoke in the presence of their adolescents; second, the families need to supervise their adolescents’ relationships and friendships in order to prevent their children from being friends with people that could encourage them to use tobacco.