Cigarette Smoking, Knowledge, Attitude and Prediction of Smoking Between Male Students, Teachers and Clergymen in Tehran, Iran, 2009

Background: students, clergymen and teachers as role models canbe very important in encouragement or prevention of cigarettesmoking in young people. the aim of this study was to compareprevalence of smoking in 3 male groups of teachers, clergymenand university students. also, study their knowledge and attitudetowards it and the prediction of their future consumption.methods: in a cross sectional study in 2009 in tehran, iran, 1,271male students, 549 clergymen and 551 teachers were randomlyenrolled. each participant completed the global adult tobaccosurvey questionnaire. knowledge, attitude and prediction ofsmoking for the next 5 years were questioned in these 3 groups.chi-squared test and logistic regression were used for analysis.p < 0.05 was considered significant.results: prevalence of cigarette smoking was 31.1%, 21.9% and27.2% among students, clergymen and teachers, respectively.smoking in students was not associated with poor knowledge butwere in teachers and clergymen. the odds ratio of smoking instudents, clergymen and teachers was higher among those withhaving inappropriate attitude towards it (or = 1.6, 6.1 and 4.5).those with poor knowledge had an inappropriate attitude andpredicted higher chance of cigarette consumption in the next 5years (p < 0.0001). inappropriate attitude in all 3 groups resultedin higher prediction of future smoking (p = 0.008).conclusions: this study revealed that the prevalence of smokingamong male students and teachers was higher than generalpopulation and clergymen who equally smoked. also, level ofknowledge and attitude of students were lower than teachers andclergymen.