earticle

영어

Purpose : This study identified the patterns of smoking of students attending middle schools and high schools, and analyzed its related health risk behaviors. Methods: The data was based on the survey of 1,517 middle students and 911 high students residing in Kyung-Gi district. Results: The current smoking rates of male and female middle students are 5.3%, and 3.1% respectively. The rates of experiences in smoking are 21.4% and 16.0%(male/female). The current smoking rates of male and female high students are 17.9% and 8.5%, whereas the rates of experiences in smoking are 34.2% and 23.3% respectively. On the other hands, 14.1% of middle students and 12.0% of high students were exposed to smoking for at least 2 hours per day. The majority of middle and high school smokers started smoking when they were in middle or high school. And the most popular places to smoke were children's playgrounds, public open area., parks, and so on. Whether having a smoker as a friend or not and students' own perception towards smoking influenced the decisions to smoke for middle and high students. Both middle and high students, regardless of their gender, who have higher rates of drinking experiences and the hours of computer usage were found to have higher rates of smoking experiences. Meanwhile, the sleeping hours is in reverse proportion to the rate of smoking experiences. There was statistically significant difference in smoking experiences related to the degree of obesity only in the female high students: underweight and overweight students showed higher rates of smoking experiences than those falling in the normal weight range. Conclusion: For the effective prevention of adolescence smoking, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive approach, which classifies the target population according to their age and sex and cover all health risk behaviors.