Evaluation of Knowledge, Attitude and Prevalence of Smoking among Sportsmen of National Teams of Iran, 2008

Many studies have shown that smoking decreases the quality of physical activities and results in the early fatigue among athletes. Generally, athletes are so popular in society and they can be considered as role models for the young generation. In this study, smoking status in champion sportsmen and their knowledge and attitude toward this issue were studied. This was a cross-sectional study which was run among the sportsmen of 10 different national teams. Data was collected through face to face questioning from the members of popular national teams during their camping time. The questionnaires were designed based on the standard WHO questionnaire. Finally, the data was analyzed by software SPSS 16. In this study 220 sportsmen were studied. Their mean age was 28.8 ± 10 years. 88 sportsmen (40.7%) reported the experience of cigarette or hookah smoking. 30 sportsmen (13.6%) were smokers. 7 sportsmen (6.4%) were ex-smokers. The mean score of their knowledge about harmful effects of smoking was 21.02 ± 22.6 and the mean score of their attitude was 66.3 ± 13.9. The prevalence of s moking among sportsmen is lower than the society however, it is still worrisome. In this population knowledge about harmful effect of smoking is low, but their attitude is acceptable meanwhile, there is no significant relation between their knowledge and attitude. It is suggested to do further studies on this issue.