Tobacco smoking and its prevention : behaviours, attitudes and practices among youths

Abstract

Recent trends in tobacco use have focused public health attention on youths. This led the researcher to conduct a small scale, non-experimental, descriptive survey to assess the prevalence of tobacco use among adolescents and to examine their attitudes and practices regarding tobacco consumption and its prevention. It adopted a cross-sectional design to observe whether certain demographic and socioeconomic factors were associated with youths' smoking-related behaviours, and to gain youths' insight on different tobacco awareness and cessation programmes. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a self-administered, structured questionnaire, constructed by the researcher. The latter was distributed among a convenience sample of 120 Maltese adolescent sixth-form students (59maleand61 female), aged 15 to 23 years (meanagel7years), attending a state (50%; 28males and 32females) or church sixth-form (50%; 31 males and 29 females). A 100% response rate was achieved. Initially, all data were coded manually and subsequently analysed with the assistance of the Statistical Package for Social Services® and Microsoft Excel®. Chi-Square tests were used to determine statistical inferences between participants' smoking-related behaviours and demographic and/or socio-economic variables. Findings supported the well-documented local and international youth smoking trends. Two fifths of the students in this sample were current smokers (40%) (daily smokers= 21 (43.8%); occasional smokers = 27 (56.3%)), 9 (7.5%) were former smokers, and 63 (52.5%) were non-smokers. An approximately equal portion of males (52.6%) and females (47.4%) were ever-smokers, yet daily smoking was more common among males (61.9% versus 38.1 % females). Participants started smoking well before 17 years of age (mean age of initiation= 14.3 years), with many progressing to regular smoking. Age of smoking initiation was significantly associated with youths' parent's/guardian's occupation. Primary motivations for smoking initiation included peer pressure, experimentation and curiosity, whilst addiction, stress, peer influence and boredom were motives for smoking continuation. Daily smoking frequency was significantly related to how long respondents could go without smoking before they felt the need to smoke again. Youths' tobacco use was significantly associated with parental, sibling and peer smoking practices and attitudes, but not to their parent's/guardian's occupation. Smoking prevalence was higher among youths who had easy access to tobacco products. Students affirmed to an individual's right to smoke, yet agreed to increased enforcement of non-smoking laws in public places. As perceived by many students, anti-smoking social networks messages should be part of a total plan to reduce youth tobacco use. Utilising approaches such as counter-marketing campaigns, stronger control policies, and active parent and community involvement, in addition to school-based programmes, can be effective strategies to prevent and reduce tobacco initiation and use among adolescents. Tobacco control and community-based cessation interventions should be conducted in a variety of settings, including blue collar and service work settings, and address predisposing factors at national and local levels. Further research should address youth empowerment and involvement in prevention and cessation programmes as tools to minimise youths' risk to tobacco-related diseases.