Students’ beliefs about smokeless tobacco use in Chabahar city: A qualitative study using focus groups

BACKGROUND: Smokeless tobacco use is a public health problem. This study explored students' beliefs about smokeless tobacco use in Chabahar, Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The qualitative study was conducted using three Focused Group Discussions among 24 students aged 12–14 years in Chabahar City. Focus Group Guide Morgan was used. Qualitative Content Analysis was used to explore and extract codes and themes. The data analysis process was carried out in accordance with the stages of proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. Guba and Lincoln criteria were used for evaluating research transferability. RESULTS: Two main themes emerged from the analysis including; beliefs of being useful and harmful. Each of these themes is divided into subthemes with useful or harmful physical and psychological beliefs. Four subthemes included: beliefs of being useful physically, beliefs of being useful psychologically, harmful beliefs physically, and harmful beliefs psychologically. CONCLUSIONS: One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that many students mentioned the benefits of using smokeless tobacco to reduce toothache, relieve headaches, and bad breath. This information can be used to develop targeted interventions aimed at reducing smokeless tobacco consumption. However, more research on this topic needs to be undertaken before the association between kinds of beliefs and smokeless tobacco consumption is more clearly understood.