Survey of the Relationship between Extroversion and Transition in Cigarette and Hookah Smoking Stages in High-School Students in Tabriz: A Longitudinal Study

Hadi Pashapour; Asghar Moham Madpoorasl; Hossein Dadashzadeh; Saeid Mousavi

doi:10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_475_21

Survey of the Relationship between Extroversion and Transition in Cigarette and Hookah Smoking Stages in High-School Students in Tabriz: A Longitudinal Study

Int J Prev Med. 2023 Jan 20:14:5. doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_475_21. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hadi Pashapour¹, Asghar Moham Madpoorasl², Hossein Dadashzadeh³, Saeid Mousavi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
² Department of Epidemiology, Health and Environment Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
³ Department of Psychology, Research Center of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Smoking is a public health problem that affects the adolescent population's health. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between extroversion (compared with introversion) and transition in cigarette and hookah smoking stages in high-school students to use the results in smoking prevention programs.

Methods: A sample of 2312 students aged 15-16 years in Tabriz were included in the study. Demographic characteristics, cigarette, hookah smoking status, and Eysenck's extroversion questionnaires were completed by all students in the selected schools. Eight months later, cigarette and hookah smoking status were assessed again to determine transition in smoking stages. The marginal homogeneity (MH) test was used to compare the smoking status at the beginning and 8 months later. The generalized estimating equation (GEE) method with the ordinal link was applied to estimate the effect of extroversion on transition in smoking stages.

Results: The mean (standard deviation) age of the students participating in the study was 15.5 (0.5) years. MH test results showed that, in general, transmission in the stages of both cigarette and hookah smoking in 8 months was significant in students (P-value < 0.0001). Extrovert personality had a significant positive effect on the transition from lower stages to higher cigarette and hookah smoking stages according to the GEE with ordinal link (P = 0.01). In cigarette and hookah smoking, extrovert persons transited to higher stages 1.64 and 1.55 times more than introvert persons.

Conclusions: Being an extrovert person had a significant effect on the transitioning to higher stages of smoking cigarettes and hookah. In designing cognitive programs to prevent people from smoking or encourage them to quit smoking, considering this dimension of personality trait can be useful in the efficacy of the program.

Keywords: Adolescent students; cigarette smoking; extroversion; hookah smoking; stages of smoking.