[A baseline survey on the association of smoking onset and life events on adolescents in Wuhan, China].
OBJECTIVE
To understand the association between stressful life event and onset of smoking among adolescents in China.


METHODS
Data on baseline survey from a 5-year longitudinal smoking prevention trail was used. Five thousand, five hundred and thirty-six students, from grade 7, 8 and 9 in 22 junior high schools all over Wuhan, China, had completed the survey on the onset of smoking in the past year and on stressful life events. Logistic regression analysis was used.


RESULTS
The results showed that 8.2% of the respondents reported the onset of smoking in the past year before the survey. The rates for male and female were 13.6% and 3.4% respectively while 7.8% for 7th graders, 9.1% for 8th graders and 8.3% for 9th graders. When gender, urbanicity and age were controlled with logistic regression model, the onset of smoking in general was significantly positively associated with the negative life events at school and family while negatively associated with positive life events in school and personal domain (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Attention should be paid to help adolescents to cope with stressful life events in order to prevent and control the onset of smoking among adolescents.
Gong
Jie
J
Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wuhan 430022, China.
Li
Yan
Y
Xg
Chen
C
Ca
Johnson
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires