Influence of some socio-demographic factors on smoking status of academicians

Among many habits of life style, smoking is one which is acquired by the children during their years at school. To monitor smoking habits of teachers, 573 teachers of Lucknow University were surveyed with the help of a questionnaire based on WHO guidelines. Overall 21.4% and 12.3% of male teachers were found to be current and ex-smoker. respectively while none of the female teachers reported to be a smoker. Significantly higher prevalence of smoking was observed among teachers of sixth decade, muslims and unmarried. Engineering faculty had the maximum proportion (30.2%) of current smokers followed by medicine (25.2%). The study also found a significantly increasing trend of smoking in teachers according to the smoking status of their parents, siblings, children and best friends. There is a need to create smoking cessation opportunities for teachers so as to establish a non-smoking environment in the schools and colleges.