The objective of this study is to compare the prevalence of smoking among young students of the area of La Garrotxa between 1982 and 1986. Two surveys were made, following the same methodology, interviewing two samples of student population 13 to 25 years old. The total number of interviewed students were 1,039 in 1982 and 1,133 in 1986. The smoking prevalence was lower in 1986 than in 1982, decreasing from 55% to 35%. This difference was due to a decrease in the prevalence of those younger than 17 in both sexes and remained stable after adjusting for age, sex and school. The initial age for experimental smoking was delayed by 1 year from 1982 to 1986. The proportion of smoker parents was not different between both periods. We conclude that smoking habit has decreased in younger people, and this is probably due to a delay in the age of smoking initiation.

The purpose of this study has been to evaluate the prevalence of smoking habit, knowledge on the adverse health effects and attitudes towards it among nurses students in their three years of study (University School of Girona). A self-administrated questionnaire was used. A total of 135 questionnaires were answered (88%) from an estimated available population of 154 students (94% females with 21 years old of mean age). The prevalence of current smoking was 34.3%; ex smokers 23.3% and non smokers 42.5%. The mean of tobacco consumption was 367.6 cigarettes/month. 92% no smokers, 91% ex smokers and 76% smokers thought that smoking has adverse health effects (p less than 0.001). They consider the health protection like the first reason to give up smoking. 38% will advise their healthy smokers patients about the risk of their habit. We conclude: 1.-Low prevalence of smoking habit; 2.-Nurses should know methods aimed at lowering smoking rates, assuming that they have determined influence on the population behavior.