title: [Study on the relationship between smoking behavior and other unhealthy behaviors among middle school students in 4 cities of China].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the situation of smoking behavior among the students of middle school in Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Urumchi and to analyze the relationship between smoking behavior and several unhealthy behaviors together with psychological troubles to provide evidence in developing an early intervention plan.
  
  
  METHODS
  The National Health Education Institute (NHEI) of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided relevant data on all middle schools in the 4 cities and then U.S. CDC randomly sampled 100 common middle schools from them with a special sampling process. The core questionnaire developed by the experts from WHO and other countries was used in the survey among 9015 sampled students.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among all the sampled students, 29.4% of them had ever attempted cigarettes smoking while 6.6% of them tried tobacco in the 30 days before survey, 27.0% of the students with smoking behavior began smoking at the age of 9 or younger, 31.8% had learned how to refuse smoking from school education. The students with smoking behavior were more likely to drink alcohol, use drugs, bully others, be injured, miss classes, and have some psychological troubles than those without smoking behavior.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were increasing trends noticed on the incidence of attempt and smoking cigarettes. Smoking was closely related to other unhealthy behaviors and psychological troubles. Comprehensive education activities on "no-smoking" should be implemented as early as possible among adolescents, as well as to promote training on life skills.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Education, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100011, China.
authors.forename: Ben-chun
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Xian-peng
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Shu-hong
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ji-bin
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiang-yang
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Guang-lian
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Wei-hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Xin-wei
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kann
authors.forename: Leanne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Riley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D001523:Mental Disorders; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders