Intention to Start Smoking and its Related Factors in Never Smoked Adolescents in Tabriz, 2010

BACKGROUND: Intention to smoking is a strong predictor of future smoking behavior. The aim of this study is identifying the personal, environmental, and psychological factors relating to intention to smoking in adolescents of Tabriz city (Northwest of Iran). METHODS: Four thousand nine hundred and three (4903) students were randomly selected and completed a self-administered questionnaire about cigarette smoking, intention to smoking, and the related risk factors through multi-stage sampling. The association of independent variables with intention to smoking was evaluated using the multi-variable logistic regression model. RESULTS: The mean age of student was 15.7 ± 0.73 years, and 42.9% of the samples were male. The results showed that 95.0% of students were in committer stage (students who had never smoked and were sure never start smoking). Having general risk-taking behavior (OR = 2.90; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.21-6.97), smoker in the family (OR = 2.60; 95% CI: 1.20-5.61), and positive attitude towards cigarette smoking (OR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.18-1.43) had statistically significant association with intention to start smoking in future. CONCLUSION: Majority of non-smokers have firm decision to not start smoking in the future. Having general risk-taking behavior, smoker in the family, and positive attitude towards smoking are associated with intention to smoking in adolescents.