Tobacco smoking in relation to religiosity and parental support among iranian female students

Sima Afrashteh,1,* Haleh ghaem,2 Abbas abbasi-ghahramanloo,3

1. Msc of Epidemiology, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran
2. Research Center for Health Sciences, Institute of Health, Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
3. Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract


Introduction

Tobacco smoking is one of the greatest public health problems around the world, especially in female college students. the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of cigarette and hookah smoking and related factors in a sample of female students in bushehr university in 2016

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016. the randomly selected sample consisted of 573 female university students. data were collected in a survey. a self-administered questionnaire was used to measure cigarette and hookah smoking, sexual behavior, alcohol and illicit drug use, religious belief, and parental support.

Results

The lifetime, last-year and last-month prevalence of tobacco smoking was 20.6, 14.3 and 7% respectively. after adjusting for other factors, alcohol use in the last year(or = 6.38), cigarette smoking among friends(or = 3.65) and lifetime illicit drug use (or = 8.51) were risk factors but score of religious beliefs (or = 0.97) was a protective factor of tobacco use in student.

Conclusion

Our results showed that the prevalence of tobacco smoking among female students is high. the findings of this research can be used for planning and evaluating interventions by considering risk and protective factors.

Keywords

Tobacco, parental support, religiosity, iran