Abstract

It was aimed to determine smoking prevalence and attitudes toward smoking among the primary school teachers in this study. In this crosssectional study, seven randomly-selected primary schools in Konya, and their total 246 teachers were given a questionnaire during the academic year of 2005-2006. Of the 246 teachers, 218 (88.6%) completed the anonymous questionnaire of the survey satisfactorily. Tobacco use prevalence, knowledge and attitudes among primary school teachers were assessed. A total of 218 teachers, 113 (51.8%) were male and 105 (48.2%) were female. The mean age was 38.00±9.10. Seventynine (36.2%) were current smokers, 53 (24.3%) former smokers and 86 (39.4%) had never smoked. The “quit” ratio was 40.1%. Most of the participants reported their age of initiation of smoking to be between the ages of 14 and 20 (73.5%) without gender bias. The reason to start smoking in 67.1% of smokers was social environment, close friendship and affectation. Smoking prevalence among primary school teachers was rather high. It is a risky and unwilling behavior because they play as a role model for all students. We suggest that emergency interventional program should be applied to teachers.