Background: Nowadays, in scientific spheres, it is unquestionable that tobacco damages health. We study the introduction of tobacco habit among inshore fishermen of Barbate (Cádiz), for we consider that this is a highly receptive population to tobacco use because of hard work and its low socio-cultural level.
Methods: A transversal descriptive study is carried out in order to determine the prevalence of tobacco use in this population. With this purpose, a questionnaire of 26 variables (epidemiological, sociodemographic and related to tobacco use) has been elaborated; 207 fishermen, equal to 10.35% of the whole inshore fishing fleet of Barbate, have been surveyed.
Results: The mean age of the sample is 39.9 years, with distribution per age groups from 16 to 65 years. The result of the survey carried out is an smoker percentage of 81.15% among the fishermen of the inshore fishing fleet of Barbate.
Conclusions: It is obvious that this population has an important deeply rooted tobacco habit. Anyway, our results are similar to those obtained by other Spanish authors when they study tobacco habit in fishermen.