Cigarette smoking among medical students in Guilan University of Medical Sciences

Objective(s): To determine the prevalence of smoking among Guilan medical students and to study the effects of sociodemographic factors on smoking behavior. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed between 590 medical students in Guilan University in 2001. The survey instrument contained a section for socio-demographic information and questions relating to the studentschr('39') smoking behavior. Current smoker was everyone who used cigarette in the previous 30 days. Data were analyzed with spss 10 software. The x2 test, Mann-Witney test and logistic regression were performed to calculate the relations between independent factors and cigarette smoking. Results: From 590 subjects, 531 (90%) completed the questionnaires. Of these 265 students were male and 255 were female. The mean age was 23.2 ± 4.1 years (range 17 to 38years). The prevalence of smoking among university students was 16.6% (26% in male and 7.1 % in female; P