title: Differences in students' smoking-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among public, factory, and private secondary schools in Guangzhou, China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prevalence of smoking among Chinese adolescents has dramatically increased in recent years. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in smoking-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among Chinese students in 3 types of secondary schools.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted among 3,957 students of seventh, eighth, and ninth grades and 2,870 student parents from 3 public, 1 factory, and 2 general-paid private secondary schools at Guangzhou in 2004. Participants were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires about sociodemographic characteristics, smoking-related family and school environments, smoking-related knowledge and attitudes, and smoking behaviors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average scores of students' smoking-related knowledge and attitudes (higher score, more against smoking) were highest in the factory school, followed by public schools and private schools. The differences among them were statistically significantly (P < .05). The lifetime smoking prevalence was also significantly different (P < .001) among 3 types of schools: 35.4% in private schools, 17.4% in public schools, and 13.2% in the factory school. The prevalence of students' weekly smoking was also higher in private schools (6.2%) than in public schools (4.9%) or the factory school (4.0%). Similar disparity was observed in the prevalence of daily smoking (3.9% private, 3.5% public, and 2.7% factory). However, differences in weekly and daily smoking were not statistically significant (P > .05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with students in public and factory schools, those in general-paid private schools had poorer smoking-related knowledge, more supportive attitudes toward smoking, and more popular smoking behaviors. Therefore, more intensive smoking prevention programs should be implemented among them.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China. xiaozhongwen@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Xiaozhong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Weiqing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhengmin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Joshua E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Muscat
authors.forename: Ciyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Wenhua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ling
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012931:Social Environment