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Boys and girls smoking within the Danish elementary school classes: a group-level analysis
Mette Rasmussen1, Mogens T Damsgaard, Pernille Due
1Institute of Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. M.Rasmussen@socmed.ku.dk
Aims:
To quantify the correlation between male and female smoking prevalence in elementary school classes by group-level analysis.
Methods:
This study was the Danish contribution to the cross-national study Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) 1998. Ninety school classes at grade nine (1,515 students) from a random sample of schools in Denmark took part. The proportion of male and female "at all" smokers and daily smokers in the school class was calculated.
Results:
The mean "at all" smoking proportion in the school classes is 39% for girls and 32% for boys. The proportion of male and female smokers within school classes does not correlate. There is high variation in male and female smoking behaviour between school classes.
Conclusions:
The influence of social classroom environment on the processes causing smoking behaviour may be different for boys and girls. This paper illustrates that group-level analysis provides valuable new knowledge.