Prevalence and cause of smoking in the medicine students

Introduction: Young smokers have been more exposed to great stresses and mishaps in their lives, compared to non-smokers. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of tendency to cigarette smoking and its reasons among medical students. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study was carried out on the population of medical students in Tehran. Two hundred and eighty students were selected by classified randomization from the students in term one, four and seven (students in each term was considered a separate group). Inclusion criteria were the same for all groups. The questionnaire comprised 45 questions including 29 common questions, 5 questions for smokers, 3 questions for recreational smokers, 7 questions for ex-smokers, and 2 questions for non-smokers. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test by SPSS-10 sofware. Results: There was no female smoker among the students, except 5 percent of the students in term seven who had smoked recreationally. The most important reasons for cigarette smoking were for pleasure and decreasing anxiety. However, maintaining the health was the most important reason for the lack of tendency to smoking among male non-smokers. Female non-smokers had also the reason of unacceptable social impact of smoking for their disinclination. Discussion: The results of current study showed that medical students are predisposed to have tendency to cigarette smoking due to psychological stresses, which are most probably related to their academic major.