Cigarette Smoking among Junior High School Students in Beijing, China, 1988

Abstract

Zhu B-P (Department of Epidemiology, Division of Social Medicine and Public Health, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People's Republic of China), Liu M, Wang S-Q, He G-Q, Chen D-H, Shi J-H and Shang J-Z. Cigarette smoking among junior high school students in Beijing, China, 1988. International Journal of Epidemiology 1992; 21: 854–861. Prevalence, behavioural patterns and risk factors of cigarette smoking were studied in a sample of 8437 junior high school students in Beijing in 1988. Smoking at least occasionally was reported by 34.4% of boys and 3.9% of girls, though the intensity tended to be low. Smoking prevalence increased with age among boys. Inhaling smoke into the lungs was practised by 68.2% of the boys who smoked and 37.3% of the girls. ‘Believing that one looks elegant when smoking’, ‘trying to be fashionable’ and ‘seeking stimulation’ were the most important reasons for smoking. Of the boys 83.5% and of the girls 86.5% usually smoked with friends or schoolmates. Many more boys (19.2%) than girls (1.7%) smoked at home. Examinations of risk factors for teenage smoking showed that it was associated with a combination of familial, psychological and socio-school factors, with peer group pressure being the most important one.