Smoking among adolescents: relation to school success, socioeconomic status nutrition and self-esteem

Smoking is a worldwide health problem. This study was designed to evaluate the current status and to examine some potential factors affecting smoking among adolescents.

Descriptive, cross-sectional study.

Community based study.

Of all middle and high school students in Edirne, Turkey, 883 (6.83%) were randomly sampled. Mean age of the subjects was 15.0 +/- 1.8 years.

A self-applied questionnaire was used to collect demographic data, smoking status, school success, nutritional behaviour and self-esteem. The influence of different factors on smoking was evaluated with a logistic regression model.

There were 89 active smokers (11.1%) with the critical age of 15 years for smoking commitment. 609 students (71.9%) were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Nutritional behaviour rich in vegetables (OR = 0.813), high school success (OR = 0.807), longer time reserved for homework (OR = 0.718) and eating breakfast (OR= 0.353) were significantly associated with a lower smoking rate. Having a mother, who smoked (OR = 2.155), increasing age (OR = 1.704), increasing number of siblings (OR = 1.351) and eating fast food (OR = 1.150) were associated with significantly higher smoking rates.

An educational programme aimed at changing behaviour and attitude to tobacco smoking and including nutritional counselling with high emphasis on the transition age from early to late adolescence may be a successful primary prevention. In addition projects designed to improve school performance may lead to a reduction in smoking rates while providing an investment in the future of the teenagers.