Purchasing of cigarettes by New Zealand secondary students in 2000

Abstract

Buying cigarettes was associated with more frequent smoking, more money to spend, a higher school decile rating and higher proportion of schoolmates also purchasing. Conclusions:Prohibition of cigarette sales to minors needs much greater attention in NZ than it is receiving at present if smoking among young people is to be reduced.

Changes in Adolescents’ Sources of Cigarettes

“…However, studies do suggest that young adolescents tend to rely on social sources [9,15,16,20,22], whereas older teens are more likely to purchase cigarettes [9,13,22]. However, this pattern is derived from cross-sectional research; to our knowledge, no longitudinal investigation has examined changes in the sources teens use as they continue to use tobacco.…”

“…Cigarette purchase from stores has been described as "I bought them from a shop" [13], "Usually bought in a store" [19], and "Bought at gas stations/convenience stores" [20]. Such variations in source description may affect results in unknown ways.…”

“…Questions regarding sources have been framed in many different ways. For example, some researchers have asked about the usual source, allowing teens to pick one response [11][12][13]. Others have allowed endorsement of multiple sources [14 -16].…”

The role of spending money and drinking alcohol in adolescent smoking

“…Adolescents are sensitive to price changes in cigarettes [4][5][6], which suggests that disposable income influences their smoking behaviors. International studies indicate that spending money is a potential risk factor for adoles-cent smoking [7][8][9][10][11][12]. However, the amount of spending money associated with smoking has been inconsistent in these studies.…”

Access to cigarettes by young New Zealand smokers: little change from 2000 to 2008

“…11 There is a lack of recent information about youth access to tobacco and information regarding the monitoring and prosecutions of retailers selling to under-age smokers. Some older NZ youth surveys show that while youth purchasing declined from 60% in 1992 to 38% in 1997, 12 by 2000, 44% of [14][15][16][17] year old smokers still obtained their cigarettes from commercial outlets, 13 and by 2002, 35% of [14][15] year old smokers were purchasing from commercial outlets. 14 More recently, 2009 data showed that 62% of [15][16][17] year olds purchased tobacco from commercial outlets.…”