Receptivity to Pro-Tobacco Media and Cigarette Smoking among Vocational High School Students in China

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the association of receptivity to pro-smoking media and cigarettesmoking among adolescents in China and updating data on smoking prevalence and typology. Data werecollected from a random sample (n=553) of vocational high school students in Wuhan, China, with a responserate of 99%. Media receptivity was assessed using the Adolescent Tobacco Media Receptivity Scale (ATMRS,score range of 1-4). Smoking typology including habitual smokers and chippers, and smoking prevalence in oneday, two days, one week, one month, two months, six months and one year were assessed. Reported smokingwas verified using exhaled carbon monoxide. It was found that the initiation rates of smoking were 71.3% forboys and 27.4% for girls with 45% of the boys and 6.3% of the girls smoking in the past 30 days. Of the smokers,40.7% were self-stoppers and 29.6% were chippers. The mean ATMRS score was 2.45 (SD=0.83) with boysscoring higher than girls. ATMRS scores were significantly associated with initiation and after-initiationsmoking assessed at various durations. Findings of this study imply that Chinese youth are highly receptive topro-tobacco media. Social marketing against tobacco advertising should be adopted as an important strategy fortobacco control in China. In addition, the period of 30-day appears to be an optimal choice to assess cigarettesmoking as conventionally used in past research.