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Objectives: To assess and compare the attitudes of high school students and teachers towards smoking, their knowledge about smoking-related diseases and their opinions on current legal restrictions.
Methods: A questionnaire was administered to 1052 high school students and 172 teachers. The mean age of the student group (59.7% males) was 16.1 ±1.3 years and that of the teachers group (50.6% males) was 38.3± 7.8 years.
Results: Smoking prevalence was significantly higher among teachers (40.7%) than students (13.1%) (p=0.000) and higher in males than females in both groups. Mean age of starting awareness of the hazards of smoking than the students and they were also more sensitive to the legal restrictions.
Conclusion: It was concluded that educators should be the first group to be addressed in education programs for prevention of smoking.