Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking in Tehran: A household study

Cigarette smoking is a highly addictive behavior and nicotine dependence is a well known modelfor drug dependence. it also acts as a gateway drug for the use of other illicit substances. in 1999, iran ministryof health and the national research center carried out a study which revealed that 11.9% of iranian population usecigarette.methods: the present study is a cross-sectional household survey which was carried out in 2004.the targetpopulation of this study consisted of residents (age>15) of the sixth district of the municipality of tehran. thesample was selected through multistage stratification and systematic randomization (n= 2705). data wasgathered using face-to-face interviews.results: our study showed that 540 (19.9%) subjects reported regular use of cigarette sometimes in theirlife. three hundred and eighty one (14.1%) reported that they were current smokers. the prevalence of smokingand the mean number of cigarette smoked daily were lower in women compared to men. about seventy fourpercent of the smokers reported that they smoked their first cigarette before the age of 25. only 7.8% reportedthat they started smoking after the age of 35.conclusion: the self-reported lifelong prevalence and the prevalence of current smoking are much lower iniran compared to many other middle east countries. moreover, according to the findings of this study, thenumber of attempts to quit smoking in iran is lower than the reported rate in other countries of the region.iranian journal of psychiatry and behavioral sciences (ijpbs), volume 1, number 2, autumn and winter 2007 : 33-37 .