Factors Related to Starting and Continuing Smoking among Senior High School Boys in Fukuoka, Japan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influence starting and quitting smoking among Japanesemale adolescents aged 15-18. Two thousand and twelve senior high school boys in Fukuoka City, Japan, answeredunsigned self-administrated anonymous questionnaires in July 2001. Odds ratios (ORs) and their 95 % confidenceintervals (CIs) were computed to assess the strength of associations between students’ smoking status and alcoholconsumption habits. Additionally, the link between a students’ smoking status and parental influence (parentalsmoking) was also assessed. Approximately 90% of the students, both current and ex-smokers, had ever smokedprior to senior high school while 77% of the students (smokers and non-smokers) had the experience of drinkingalcohol prior to admission to senior high school. After adjustment for school year (i.e., freshman, sophomore,junior, senior), academic education level, after-school club activities, time of first drinking experience and thefrequency of drinking, there was a significant increased risk to become a smoker when one parent is a smoker(OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.18-2.37) or when both parents are smokers (OR = 2.94, 95% CI = 1.66-5.18) comparedto both parents being non-smokers. The consumption of alcohol prior to entering senior high school wassignificantly associated with more than 2.5-fold greater risk for the onset of smoking when compared to the riskof becoming a smoker when alcohol consumption started after entering senior high school. An increased frequencyof drinking was also associated with starting smoking (OR =14.00, 95% CI = 8.08-24.26; 2-3 times/week vs.never). Similarly, an increase in drinking frequency resulted in less likelihood of smoking cessation. For instance,the data showed that, the subjects were 1/3 less likely to quit smoking. Paternal smoking had a significantimpact on whether or not a child would quit smoking (OR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.38-0.81) as compared to a childthat had paternal and maternal non-smokers. This study suggested that drinking habits started earlier thansmoking habits among adolescents. Many students had already experienced drinking before admission tosenior high school, while the experience of smoking mostly typically started after admission to high school.These data show the urgency of developing anti-smoking educational programs that could be developed andintroduced prior to admission to high school.