title: Children's knowledge of the health risks of smoking.
abstract: One thousand, two hundred and fifty-four intermediate and secondary school students ranging in age from 10 to 16 were questioned, as part of a larger study on their knowledge of the health risks of smoking. Though they were well aware of some of the specific ill effects of smoking including its relationship to lung cancer and the danger to the fetus during pregnancy, very few (12% of girls and 14% of boys) knew that smoking causes more deaths in New Zealand than road accidents. Existing health education programmes have clearly failed to teach young people about the potentially fatal effects of smoking.
authors.affiliation: University of Waikato, Hamilton.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ritchie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D012306:Risk; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000401:mortality / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires