Smoking Pattern Among Military and Police Soldiers in Guilan, 2005

Introduction. Several studies have reported data indicating that there are positive relationship < sup> between cigarette smoking and military staff especially soldiers. According to population pyramid of Iran, a main group of people are youth and have situated in military period. This study determined the prevalence of cigarette smoking among soldiers of Guilan province.Material and Method. In a cross sectional study, self– completion anonymous questionnaires were administered to 612 selected soldiers with quota random sampling in Guilan .The questionnaire consisted of two sections section one dealt with sociodemographic data, including: age, duration of conscription, marital status, parent’s education, cigarette smoking among parent and other family members and section two assessed details cigarette smoking at now. Data analyzed with SPSS 11.5 software and χ² test and logistic regression were used.Results. The mean age was 21.8 ± 2 (range from 18 to 29 years). Mean duration of entrance to military services was 8 ± 5.8 months. 82.2% were single, 25% were illiterate or ≤5 grade education, 37.1% had 12 grades and 37.9 % had more than 12 grades education. 233 persons (38.1%) were ever smokers and 157 subjects (25.7%) were current smokers. Among current smokers, 82.2% were started smoking before the entrance to military services. Among smokers, the mean age for starting smoking was 16.8 ± 3.2 years. There was a significant correlation between current smoking and cigarette use by friends and family members, marriage situation and regular exercise according of χ² test but in logistic regression models, cigarette smoking by friends was the only affecting factor on smoking in participants (p < 0/00001 ).Discussion. Although this study showed that there is not any difference between cigarette smoking among soldiers and normal population but noticing time of starting of smoking reveals that appropriated preventive programs are needed to control of this problem among youth.