prevalence of hookah smoking and its related factors among students of tehran university of medical sciences, 2012 - 2013

Background: hookah smoking has increased worldwide, especially among young people. objectives: the aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of hookah use and related factors in a sample of iranian students of medical sciences. materials and methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted on 1992 randomly selected sample of students of tehran university of medical sciences during 2012 - 2013. a multistage sampling method was used and anonymous structured questionnaires were distributed to the students of each selected class. chi-square test, fisher’s exact test and multiple binary logistic regression analyses were performed and p < 0.05 was considered as a significance level. results: lifetime, last year and last month prevalence rates of hookah smoking were 26.6% (95% ci: 24.7 - 28.6), 17.8% (95% ci: 16.1 - 19.5) and 8.9% (95% ci: 7.7 - 10.2), respectively. the results of logistic regression model showed that male gender [odds ratio (or) = 2.8, 95% ci: 1.86 - 4.21], cigarette smoking in the past year (or = 5.6, 95% ci: 3.21 - 9.83), alcohol use in the past year (or = 7.4, 95% ci: 4.01 - 13.06), cigarette or hookah smoking in the family members (or = 1.7, 95% ci: 1.13 - 2.51), cigarette or hookah smoking among friends (or = 4.4, 95% ci: 2.69 - 7.33), alcohol use by friends in the past year (or = 1.9, 95% ci: 1.20 - 3.14), and illicit substance use among friends (or = 2.2, 95% ci: 1.22 - 4.05) were associated with hookah smoking. conclusions: the results of our study indicate a relatively high prevalence of hookah smoking among iranian students. the findings emphasize the importance of planning preventive interventions by considering different high-risk behaviors simultaneously.