Students’ beliefs about smokeless tobacco use in Chabahar city: A qualitative study using focus groups
نویسندگان
1 Department of Medical‑Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
2 Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
3 Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran
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چکیده
BACKGROUND: Smokeless tobacco use is a public health problem. This study explored students’beliefs about smokeless tobacco use in Chabahar, Iran.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The qualitative study was conducted using three Focused GroupDiscussions among 24 students aged 12–14 years in Chabahar City. Focus Group Guide Morganwas used. Qualitative Content Analysis was used to explore and extract codes and themes. Thedata analysis process was carried out in accordance with the stages of proposed by Graneheim andLundman. Guba and Lincoln criteria were used for evaluating research transferability.RESULTS: Two main themes emerged from the analysis including; beliefs of being useful andharmful. Each of these themes is divided into subthemes with useful or harmful physical andpsychological beliefs. Four subthemes included: beliefs of being useful physically, beliefs of beinguseful psychologically, harmful beliefs physically, and harmful beliefs psychologically.CONCLUSIONS: One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that many studentsmentioned the benefits of using smokeless tobacco to reduce toothache, relieve headaches, and badbreath. This information can be used to develop targeted interventions aimed at reducing smokelesstobacco consumption. However, more research on this topic needs to be undertaken before theassociation between kinds of beliefs and smokeless tobacco consumption is more clearly understood.
