Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking in Tehran: A household study

Cigarette smoking is a highly addictive behavior and nicotine dependence is a well known model for drug dependence. It also acts as a gateway drug for the use of other illicit substances. In 1999, Iran Ministry of health and the national research center carried out a study which revealed that 11.9% of Iranian population use cigarette.

The present study is a cross-sectional household survey which was carried out in 2004.The target population of this study consisted of residents (age>15) of the sixth district of the municipality of Tehran. The sample was selected through multistage stratification and systematic randomization (n= 2705). Data was gathered using face-to-face interviews.

Our study showed that five hundred and forty (19.9%) subjects reported regular use of cigarette sometimes in their life. 381 (14.1%) reported that they were current smokers. The Prevalence of smoking and the mean number of cigarette smoked daily were lower in women compared to men. 74.1% of the smokers reported that they smoked their first cigarette before the age of 25. Only 7.8% reported that they started smoking after the age of 35.

The self-reported lifelong prevalence and the prevalence of current smoking are much lower in Iran compared to many other Middle East countries. Moreover, according to the findings of this study, the number of attempts to quit smoking in Iran is lower than the reported rate in other countries of the region.