Smoking practices, risk perception of smoking, and environmental tobacco smoke exposure among 6th-grade students in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Abstract

This study assessed the smoking practices, risk perception of smoking, and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure among adolescents in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. We used a cross-sectional method to examine the smoking practices, risk perception of smoking, and ETS exposure of 6th-grade students (N=506), aged 11-13 years, attending six randomly selected middle schools. Schools were classified by school setting (i.e., public vs. private) and socioeconomic status (SES; i.e., low, middle, or high). The results indicated that 6th-grade students attending a public, low-SES school setting in Ciudad Juárez not only exhibited significantly higher rates of ETS exposure at home and in public places (p<.01) but also were more likely to have tried smoking (p<.01) and to be current smokers (p<.01), and were less likely to support a ban on smoking in public places (p<.01), compared with students who attended a private school or a public, middle- or high-SES school setting. These results provide further evidence that public health interventions to prevent initiation of smoking and to assist in smoking cessation among adolescents and to reduce their ETS exposure at home and in public need to target all school-aged students, especially those attending school in a low-SES settings.

Prevalence and characteristics of flavoured tobacco use among students in grades 10 through 12: a national cross-sectional study in Canada, 2012–2013

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Asthma in Childhood Reduces Smoking Initiation in Subsequent Teens Among Males

“…Finally, information on exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in early life, which has been associated both to earlyonset asthma [37] and to subsequent smoking initiation [38], was lacking in the present study. Hence, the "protective effect" of childhood asthma on starting smoking could be masked by a confounding effect of environmental tobacco smoke.…”

Smoke-free policies and the social acceptability of smoking in Uruguay and Mexico: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project

“…Polls conducted among urban-dwelling adults in Mexico in 2007 indicated similarly high levels of support for smoke-free policies (80% -83%) in enclosed public areas and workplaces ( Abundis, 2008 ). Slightly higher levels of support for smoke-free policies have been found among Mexican youth ( Bird et al, 2007 ), with the percentage of urban youth supporting smoke-free policies increasing from 2003( Valdés-Salgado et al, 2006. No analyses have been undertaken in either Mexico or Uruguay to assess which factors predict support for smoke-free policies or to assess other attitudinal and normative factors that are presumably associated with smokefree policies.…”