Prevalence and Perceived Contributing Factors of Physical Fighting, Cigarette Smoking, and Alcohol Use among Adolescents in Erbil City

Abstract

Background: Health behaviors and risk behaviors are often related to the community in a more complex pattern of behaviors associated with lifestyles. This study aimed to find out the prevalence and perceived contributing factors of physical fighting, cigarette smoking and alcohol use among adolescents in Erbil city

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Erbil, Iraq from the 4^th of November 2020 through the 10^th of March, 2021. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data from the adolescents’ preparatory schools. 1000 students were chosen randomly out of 36777 students in high schools.

Results: The mean age + SD of the students was 16.7 + 1.2 years, ranging from 14 to 19 years. The median was 17 years. Physical fighting was the most common risk behavior among the students (28.4%), followed by smoking (13.4%), and the lowest rate of risk behaviors was for alcohol drinking (2.2%). There was significant association between age and alcohol drinking.

Conclusion: The physical fighting was the commonest health risk behavior among all male students in high schools in Erbil city. There was statistically significant association between age and alcohol drinking. future research ought to be conducted in the other governorates of Kurdistan to provide an additional accurate depiction of multiple health risk behaviors among adolescent students in high school in Kurdistan region of Iraq.