The Causes of Smoking and the Solutions to Control it in Tehran

Background: Smoking is one of the leading causes of disease and death inthe world. There is a growing trend of smoking in Iran, especially amongyouth and women. This study has been conducted to identify the factorsrelated to smoking and solutions that can lead to its control in Tehran.Methods: This study was conducted qualitatively from August 2015 toAugust 2016 in Tehran. The data collection tool included cognitiveinterviews and deep, semi-structured interviews. The participants consisted of7 men and 5 women who smoked cigarettes; they were selected throughpurposive sampling with maximum diversity and snowball technique whichcontinued until data saturation. The data was analyzed through qualitativeconventional content analysis.Results: Two main classes with 15 subclasses were extracted from theparticipants’ responses. The causes of smoking and the solutions for itscontrol are evaluated along these two classes. The subclasses include factorslike being accustomed to smoking, considering smoking as a normalbehavior, easy access to cigarettes, recreation and entertainment; lack ofrecreational facilities, way of relaxing, increasing the price of cigarettes, theimportance of making cigarettes scarce, and cultural and individual volition.Conclusion: Being accustomed to smoking and considering it as anentertainment are the most important causes of smoking, and the importanceof creating an anti-smoking culture and individual volition have beenintroduced as the most important solutions for controlling smoking in Tehran.Furthermore, it seems that reducing the public access to cigarette throughvarious ways such as increasing the price, reducing the imports, the decline inproduction and supply, as well as creating a culture against smoking canreduce the amount of smoking considerably.