title: Changes in smoking patterns in young military recruits in relationship to psychosocial characteristics.
abstract: We followed 295 young infantry recruits during their first 14 weeks of basic training. The prevalence of smoking increased by 50%. About half of this increase was accounted for by ex-smokers, 57% of whom had resumed the habit. Average education and military psychometric measures of both the baseline smokers and the new smokers were significantly lower than those of the abstaining never-smokers. Asian and North African origin and a lower peer group evaluation score were also risk factors. These relationships were not demonstrated among resuming ex-smokers. The rise in the smoking rate accounts for most of the known rise during full military service. We suggest early preventive measures, especially for the two groups at risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-2158.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shahar
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Carel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D044469:Racial Groups; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors