[Smoking at school in a commune of Bamako, Mali]

Heavy smoking causes 4 million deaths worldwide, more than 70% being in the developing countries. The purpose of our study was to determine the prevalence of heavy smoking and to identify the factors which influence it in school settings in Bamako. We carried out a cross-sectional investigation in April 2009, in 8 randomly selected schools in a town of Bamako, with a sample of 328 pupils over 11 years of age.

The investigation included 328 pupils, among them, 72.3% were boys. The age of the pupils varied between 12 and 23 years. The age group 12-15 ans was the most represented with 66.2%. It appears that 47.6% of the pupils smoked cigarettes at least once. We found that 14% of the pupils (46/328), all boys, were regular smokers. Among these heavy smokers, 37% smoked more than 5 cigarettes per day and 52% had consumption period of more than 12 months. The factors supporting the heavy smoking were: father smoker (22.56%), other family member smoker (56.4%), smoker teachers (52.7%). The main motivations which pushed the pupils to smoke were promiscuity (63%) pleasure (22%) and snobbery (13%). While 85.9% of the pupils knew the harmfulness of the tobacco, 38.7% learned it at school, but 76,5% were unaware of the existence of a law on tobacco sale and consumption in Mali.

The prevalence of heavy smoking among pupils was of 14% in an inciting environment. We recommend intensifying the communication for behavior change and applying the tobacco law.