[Smoking in school: Cocody, Abidjan]

A cross-sectional study on smoking in school was conducted in public, private, and international secondary schools in Cocody, Abidjan, between March 18 and May 4, 2003. Data were collected with an anonymous individual questionnaire from 1000 pupils.

Pupils smoked for the first time at an early age, 13.9 years on average. The prevalence of smoking was 15.9%, with a strong proportion of girls who smoked (10.6%). Smoking was particularly prevalent in private and international schools. Many pupils (37.7%) stated their teachers also smoked in the school and in their presence. Only 13.8% of parents knew their children smoked. Favoring factors observed were the influence of smoking parents (26.5%), influence of smoking peers (67.6%). Two motivations were predominant: curiosity and imitation. Most pupils bought their cigarettes with their pocket money (62.7%). Most smokers smoked in night clubs and bars (74.3%) and drank alcohol (69%). Less than two-thirds of the pupils were knowledgeable about the consequences of smoking: basically they knew about lung diseases (62.9%), and particularly lung cancer (63% of lung diseases). The majority of the pupils were aware of the nicotine content of cigarettes (52.8%).