Smoking Knowledge, Attitude and Behavior of Child Labor Who Live in Tehran during 2013-2014

Abstract Background: Children and adolescent smoking is one of the most important health problems in the world. There is a major concern that child labor may generate a pseudo maturity syndrome, including smoking. The current survey focus on smoking behavior, knowledge and attitude of child labor are working in Tehran. Materials and Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional design, based on a primary pilot descriptive cross sectional study, using GYTS self-administered questionnaire. 816 child labor, which were student of work labor schools or worked as child labor on Tehran parks and crossing roads, were randomly selected using multi stage cluster sampling. DATA analyzed using SPSS v.22 (IBM statistic) software and chi square test to compare the frequency of variables in different groups. Results: 50.6% of our participants were boy and child laboring age varied from 11 to 17 years old. 18.6% of child labor had smoking experience (Confident Interval 95%=17.3-20.1). 9.8% of them were current smoker (CI 95%=8.6-10.9) and 1.2% were current regular smoker (CI 95%=0.9-2.1). Child labor smoking hazard knowledge was evaluated by considering the minimum and maximum score of 10 to 30. Results demonstrated that the mean score of knowledge, attitude and behavior were 17.1±6.2, 36.5±16.1 (range 15-45) and 46.1±3.0 (range 25-75), respectively. Conclusion: Considering to our findings, planning tobacco control program for these specific groups is required, aiming at preventing cigarette smoking by increasing the knowledge and correcting their attitude.