Smoking trends in Portuguese school-aged children and approaches for a control--an analysis based on the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) data.
While smoking has negative health consequences for children and adolescents, the major risk of smoking onset by these age groups is tobacco dependence, in most cases for the rest of their lives, which can later lead to the suffering of diseases related to smoking. This fact shows the importance of smoking prevention in teens to avoid the negative health, economic and environmental effects related to smoking. Although Portugal does not have a National Smoking Prevention Programme, some schools have developed prevention campaigns to control the spread of the tobacco epidemic. To determine the efficacy of smoking prevention campaigns developed in Portuguese schools we compared the data of smoking prevalence provided by Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) (11-15 years old) from 1997/98 and 2002. The results show the rise of smoking prevalence in students on both sexes, especially among girls. Data supports the conclusion that Portuguese schools are not effective in smoking prevention and in Portugal it is necessary to continue smoking prevention campaigns aimed at the younger children.
Macedo
Manuel
M
Médico Pneumologista, no Hospital de S. Marcos.
Precioso
José
J
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention