Male Students More Inclined to Smoking

Among Iranian university students, the odds of males becoming smokers are higher than females, a new study says.

The research suggests that those who have “conditionally passed” a course and those who have close friends that smoke are also likely to take up the habit.

A “conditional pass” is assigned when the examination committee feels the student has basic understanding of the course material, but not enough to merit a passing grade. In this case, the committee sets out conditions that the student must meet by the end of the subsequent semester.

Researchers from the medical faculty of Tarbiat Modarres University, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and the Institute of Health Sciences Research at the Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research jointly conducted the study.

The paper was published in the IHSR journal Payesh. The purpose was to identify factors related to smoking based on individual concept of health, Mehr News Agency reported.

Some 340 subjects with an average age of 22 were selected from among students of Shahid Beheshti University in four dormitories (two boys’ and two girls’ dormitories) and were given questionnaires.

Questions included the students’ understanding of the risks of smoking and their severity, causes of developing the habit, and benefits of refusing to smoke.

The survey found out that regular use of cigarette correlates with gender, weak academic performance and close friendship with smokers.

According to the results, boys are in general more likely than girls to be drawn towards tobacco. Moreover, male students who take a drag once are more prone to becoming smokers than female students who experiment with it.

This is most probably due to the fact that smoking is generally considered anti-social behavior for women.

The variables of age, marital status, years of education, parents’ education, having smokers in the family, smoking-related deaths among relatives, family size and birth order did not show any relation with being a smoker.

Additionally, the study showed that the Internet and interaction with friends were the main sources of information about the dangers of smoking for those surveyed. This is to say that social media and circle of friends must be given special attention when devising plans and starting campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking.  

The article suggests that the results be used as reference material for intervention and prevention plans for young people.

Smoking is globally thought to be a gateway to drug abuse. Tobacco smoke contains 4,000 chemicals of which over 40 substances have been proven to be carcinogenic for humans and animals.

More than 40% of deaths from lung cancer and 30% of deaths from other types of cancer are related to smoking.

Of all the smoking-related deaths, 46% are caused by cardiovascular diseases, 26% by lung cancer, 14.3% by emphysema and bronchitis, 7% by other types of cancer and 6.7% by other conditions.