Prevalence, correlates of and perceptions toward cigarette smoking among adolescents in South Korea.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of current smoking, correlates of smoking and assess exposure to and perceptions towards smoking by gender.


METHODS
We used data from the South Korea Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS). Frequencies of selected characteristics and their 95% confidence were obtained. Current cigarette smoking was defined as having smoked, even a single puff, within the last 30 days. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the factors that were considered to be associated with current cigarette smoking in bivariate and multivariate analyses.


RESULTS
Of the 5615 respondents, 7.4% males and 5.0% females reported being current smokers (p = 0.003). Having smoking friends was strongly associated with smoking after controlling for age, gender, parental smoking status, exposure to anti-smoking media messages, and perception of risks of smoking (OR=69.92; 95% CI [41.24, 118.57] for most friends and OR=11.86; 95% CI [7.26, 19.36] for some friends). Male gender and having one or both smoking parents were associated with smoking (OR=1.43; 95% CI [1.09, 1.89] and OR=1.29; 95% CI [1.00-, 1.71] respectively). Exposure to antismoking media messages was negatively associated with smoking (OR=0.52; 95% CI [0.36, 0.77].


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of smoking among adolescents in South Korea is lower than in many other Asian countries. There is however, need to strengthen anti-tobacco messages especially among adolescents.
Rudatsikira
Emmanuel
E
Department of Biostatistics, Loma Linda University, School of Public Health, Loma Linda, California, USA.
Muula
Adamson S
AS
Siziya
Seter
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires