Source: Annual Congress 2002 - Smoking habits in teenagers
Disease area: Airway diseases

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The estimation of the smoking prevalence among schoolchildren in Chania and the study of the factors influencing them to do so in order to develop suitable prevention programs.
PARTICIPANTS: A convenient sample of 595 students of all grades (ages 12-18) in 10 high schools in Chania city and province.
DESIGN AND METHODS : We conducted a risk-assessment cross-sectional study. An anonymous detailed questionnaire (36 questions) was answered in presence of a researcher.
RESULTS: 531 students answered (5.3 % of the total number of schoolchildren in Chania region). 7.2% were absent;42% male42.7% stated they had smoked at least once, 24.9% were experimental and 17.9 % were current smokers(CS).There was a significant increase in prevalence of current and experimental smoking with age especially in 3 and 6 grades. Boys start smoking at the mean age of 13.3 while girls nearly a year later at 14.1 which is statistically significant. 57.4% of CS are daily smokers. 50% of boys and 42.6% of girls are heavy smokers (> 6 cigarettes/day). CS's weekly mean number of cigarettes they smoke is 82.19 for boys and 83.65 for girls. Logistic regression analysis showed that the most important predictors of current smoking are – hierarchical order- the age of students [odds ratio = 1.8, confidence interval (CI) 95%], the number of friends who are smoking [(more than 3), odds ratio = 0.367 CI 95%]; gender (male) and having a brother who smokes, are also significant risk factors.
CONCLUSION: Smoking prevention programs are necessary in view of the documented high prevalence of smoking among schoolchildren and they should target to early intervention in school.

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Citations should be made in the following way:
A. Damianaki, D. Makris, S. Tsirakis, D. Marin, E. Ntaoukakis (Chania, Volos, Greece). Cigarette smoking habits among schoolchildren. Eur Respir J 2002; 20: Suppl. 38, 889

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