The Yazd People’s Point of View about Effect of Visual Media on Smoking Prevalence

Introduction: smoking is a major cause of death in the world.about 5 million people die due to smoking and if the same pattern continues to 2020, it is estimated that each year 10 million people will die from smoking .there is a strong positive correlation between the onset of smoking in adolescents and young adults, and exposure to media and movies which show smoking. therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the point of view of yazd people about effect of smoking in visual media on smoking prevalence.materials and methods: this descriptive (cross-sectional) study was done on 582 people in the city of yazd. a self-administrative questionnaire was used and its validity and reliability was measured. after completing the questionnaires, the data was analyzed, using spss 16and t-test, anova and chi-square test.results: based on participants' point of view, the family, friends, and media respectively had more important role in tendency of adolescents to smoking. data showed that about 80% 0f samples believed that smoking in media has a high positive effect on adolescents’ smoking. more than 55% of participants confirmed that the lack of smoking in movies doesn’t affect the quality of films.conclusion: the present study suggests that control and monitoring on media, limitation or lack of smoking on media and films is an important factor to decrease and control smoking in adolescents and young adults.