Objective: This study evaluates the cigarette smoking by village headmen.

Material and Method: A descriptive study design was used in this study. The universe of the study consisted of 172 village headmen in the Maden and Sivrice Districts of Elazig Province and the Akcadag District of Malatya Province (response rate: 97.7%). The data were and analyzed using SPSS with t tests and chi-square.

Results: All the village headmen were male, and their mean age was 48.58±9.93 years. Their mean starting age of cigarette smoking was 16.7±5.3. Of them, 59.0% reported that they had started smoking before they became village headmen. Their mean number of cigarettes smoked per day was 20.8±12.3. Of the village headmen, 55.4% smoke on duty. The mean number of cigarettes smoked per day while on duty was 24.0±13.5 (p<0.05). This study revealed that the daily smoking rate was 74.4% in the 39 and younger age group and 39.7% in the 50 and older age group (p<0.01). As age increased, the daily smoking rate decreased significantly (p<0.05). The smoking rate of the village headmen which have graduated primary school was 60.3%, while this rate was 40.5% for those who were high school graduates or had higher education levels (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The cigarette smoking rate of village headmen who are leaders of society is very high as the amount of cigarettes they smoked daily. Initiatives should be made to reduce the smoking rate of village headmen who are role models for society.