Occurrence of tobacco use and associated factors in school children

Abstract

Smoking is considered the most important public health problem and is currently the main avoidable cause of death. The objective of this work was to estimate the occurrence of smoking and associated factors among adolescents in two schools (one public and one private) in the city of Caruaru - PE. An exploratory transversal study was performed, in which 277 adolescents with ages between 10 and 16 were interviewed. The statistical tests used were percentage analysis, exact Fisher and Chi-Square (5% significance level). The occurrence of smokers was low (1.8%), starting from ages 12 and 13 and increasing in older ages. The habit of smoking was higher in adolescents from the public school (2.9%) than from the private school (0.7%), but without a statistically significant difference (p = 0.214). In respect to gender, both male and female adolescents presented the same occurrence (1.8%). Most interviewees (97.5%) believe cigarettes can cause some oral problems, halitosis (30%) and mouth cancer (59.7%) being the most cited problems. The conclusion was that the occurrence of smoking was low, without a statistically significant difference related to the type of school or gender, and that the interviewed adolescents know that the habit of smoking can cause oral health problems.