Abstract
BackgroundA national survey in Japan reported that the prevalence of smoking among high school students has sharply decreased in recent years. However, the survey only considered students who attended regular high schools (RHSs), and Japan offers part-time high schools (PHSs) that are often attended by academically and socioeconomically disadvantaged youth.PurposeTherefore, we examined the smoking prevalence and smoking-related factors among PHS students.MethodA self-administered questionnaire-based survey was conducted at six PHSs. The subjects included 540 enrolled students aged 15 to 18 years. The questionnaire included items on smoking status, smokers in the family, frequency of convenience store use, lifestyle behaviors, and health awareness. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors that were significantly associated with smoking.ResultsA total of 45.6 % of students had smoking experience, and 29.3 % were smokers. For males and females, the smoking prevalence was about 3 and 7–12 times higher, respectively, than that reported in the national survey. The factors found to be significantly associated with smoking included having a smoker in the family, experience with drinking alcohol, and using convenience store daily (odds ratio [OR] = 12.5) or sometimes (OR = 3.63). There was a significant dose–response relationship between smoking and convenience store use.ConclusionThe smoking prevalence among PHS students was remarkably higher than that among RHS students. These findings suggest that marginalized and disadvantaged youth should be targeted for tobacco control, and intervention is needed to protect youth from tobacco sales and advertising at convenience stores.
Highlights
Youth smoking is an extremely serious public health issue
The smoking prevalence among part-time high schools (PHSs) students was remarkably higher than that among regular high schools (RHSs) students. These findings suggest that marginalized and disadvantaged youth should be targeted for tobacco control, and intervention is needed to protect youth from tobacco sales and advertising at convenience stores
For comparisons with RHS students, we considered age at a PHS to correspond to tenth grade at an RHS, age at a PHS to correspond to 11th grade at an RHS, and ages and at a PHS to correspond to 12th grade at an RHS
Summary
Youth smoking is an extremely serious public health issue. Tobacco use and nicotine addiction generally begins during youth and continues through adulthood, and smokers who become addicted in their youth have the highest risk of tobacco-related disease [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The prevalence of smoking among Japanese youth was not reported in either the Tobacco Atlas or the GYTS, but an independent survey of smoking among Japanese high school students was begun in 1996 and continues into the present. The results of this survey indicated that the prevalence of smoking among high school students (10th–12th grades) in Japan in 2008 was 8.6 % for males and 4.6 % for females, which was low by global standards [8, 9].
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