Abstract:
Background: Smoking is the most important preventable risk factor for diseases, disabilities and
death in the world. At a moment the spread of tobacco use is growing at fast in the adolescents,
who are the future of the generation of the country. There is limited data on the smoking habits
of students in high school levels of Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess the prevalence of cigarette smoking and associated factors among high
school students in Misha District, Hadiya zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia, 2017
Subjects and methods: A cross- sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of
cigarette smoking and associated factors of cigarette use among high school students
Randomly selected 352 students were participated. Data were collected using a pre-tested selfadministered questionnaire with closed ended questions. It was entered in to Epi-data version 3.1
and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Summary statistics was calculated and multiple logistic
regression analysis was considered to determine of smoking behavior at 95% confidence level
adjusting for confounders.
Results: Three hundred fifty two students were participated in the study yielding response rate of
98%. This study revealed that current smoking prevalence was 11.1% (95% CI: (8.0, 14.5).
Having smoking mother (AOR=3.6), male gender (AOR=2.5), Khat chewing practice (AOR=3),
having friends smoking (AOR = 2.6), having smoking father (AOR = 3.2) and having sisters
smoking (AOR = 3.31) were significantly associated with current smoking of students.
Conclusion and recommendation: This study found significant numbers of students were smokers.
Overwhelming proportion of non smoking students intended, implying high risk associated with
tobacco smoking of future generations. Therefore, actions targeting on predictors are necessary
to effectively reduce the smoking of the tobacco.
