Smoking-Related Components Among the Youth Using a Sociological Approach in Shiraz, Iran

 Over the last few decades, smoking, including cigarettes and hookah, has significantly increased among teenagers and youth in the world, which is currently considered a global problem of public health. Therefore, the present study investigated smoking and its related components by a sociological approach.

 Using a questionnaire and a multi-stage stratified sampling method, this cross-sectional study was conducted through a quantitative method and survey on 600 young people in the age group of 18-35 years in Shiraz. Data were collected and analyzed by SPSS.

 The average age of the studied youth was 24 years, and 51% of them (302 persons) were men. In addition, 44.2% of the respondents experienced smoking, and 32.5% and 6% of men and women used it. Further, 33.3% of the people considered themselves to belong to the lower class smoke, and a statistically significant and inverse relationship was found between age, education, social belonging, social capital, cultural capital related to public health, and self-efficacy and smoking. In addition, a statistically significant difference was observed between gender and marital status and smoking (P<0.001).

 According to the results of the present study, it seems that it is possible to reduce smoking among the youth using coherent educational plans and culture to promote social and cultural capital related to public health and self-efficacy.