title: Associations between individual and contextual factors and smoking in 13,293 Mexican students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Factors correlated with cigarette smoking in young people have yet to be documented in most developing countries. This study assesses the correlates of smoking in Mexican young people.
  
  
  METHODS
  School-based, cross-sectional study in the central Mexican state of Morelos during the 1998-1999 school year of 13,293 public school students aged 11 to 24 years. Multinomial logistic regression models were constructed with smoking as the dependent variable.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Regular smoking (one or more cigarettes daily) prevalence was 13.1% (95% confidence interval [CI]=12.2-13.9) in males, and 6.1% (95% CI=5.6-6.6) in females. Frequent alcohol intoxication was strongly associated with regular smoking (females, odds ratio [OR]=68.5, 95% CI=37.6-125.2; males, OR=34.5, 95% CI=22.6-52.7). Regular smoking was associated with illegal drug use and smoking by both parents in females, and with illegal drug use in males (males, OR=4.9, 95% CI=3.7-6.5). Also associated with tobacco smoking were high socioeconomic status, low academic achievement, illegal drug use by peers, marijuana use by parents, and depression in adolescents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study documents a strong correlation between tobacco smoking and other health risk behaviors, especially alcohol and drug abuse. In young women especially, the risk of tobacco use increased with alcohol abuse and higher socioeconomic status. School-based interventions are needed that focus on preventing smoking and also take into account other unhealthy behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Center for Population Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: Edna
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Arillo-Santillan
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lazcano-Ponce
authors.forename: Mauricio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hernandez-Avila
authors.forename: Esteve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Betania
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Raydel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valdes
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Samet
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D010290:Parents; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology