Consumo de tabaco en adolescentes de un área rural de Asturias

Abstract

Abstract Introduction. Tobacco use among young people and teenagers is an important public health problem. The consumption use to start during early adolescence. Several risk factors having an influence on the begining of the use have been described. Objetive. To describe the prevalence of use, the risk factors and the attitudes regarding smoking in the teenagers of a rural area in Asturias. Patients and methods. Cross ? sectional descriptive study. An organized anonimous questionnaire was filled by a sample of 208 students of Secondary Education of the Southoccidental Sanitary Area of Asturias. The investiga-ted variables were age, sex, have ever tasted tobacco, age at the use begining, frecuency of use, parents cultural standard, smoking among close people and attitudes regarding tobacco. Results. The sample mean age was 15.2 ± 0.9 years (54.7% women). 41.8% had ever tasted tobacco, 21.4% were smokers and 13.9% were daily smokers. Mean age at the use begining was 13 ± 2.1 years. 60.7% of the fathers and 52.7% of the mothers had only primary education. 43.9% of the fathers, 21.5% of the mothers, 17.9% of the siblings and 36.6% of the friends were smokers. There were significative differences between smokers and no smokers regarding smoking mothers (p = 0.001), siblings (p = 0.001) and friends (p < 0.0000) and regarding to believe that the tobacco is funny (p = 0.01), helps one to feel well (p > 0.0000) and helps one to make friends (p = 0.0001). Conclusions. More than 50% of the secondary education students of a rural area recognize have ever tasted tobacco. More influenting factors in the use of tobacco are having a smoker mother or smoker friends and the beliefe that tobacco is funny, helps one to feel well and to make friends.