[The analysis of the present situations of smoking habits in the Hui minority primary school students in the backward region of Ningxia].
OBJECTIVE
To find out the current situations of smoking habits in the Hui minority primary school students that have in the backward region and the different situations between the suburb region and the rural area.


METHODS
512 Hui minority primary school students were choosed from grade one to grade five of four different primary schools in 20 classes in the township of Yuanzhou District, Guyuan City, Ningxia Province. The preliminary investigations on the situations were carried out to find out the elements which affect the students on learning to smoke or becoming negative smokers.


RESULTS
The youngest smoker was at the ages of 6 years Hui minority primary school student. The total percentages of smoking were 23.4%, and the rates went up as their grades raise. While the rates of the negative smokers takes 62.7%, and the rates in suburb region were more higher than those in the rural area (chi2 = 4.25, P < 0.05). The rates of the Hui minority primary school students, from the suburb and the rural areas, whose families had smokers were 57.5% and 46.7% respectively (P < 0.05). The first cigarette for those students who learning to smoke in the suburb and the rural area usually came from their family, from their classmates or friends. And these three main sources are equal one another. Among all the negative smokers in the suburb and the rural area, the rates of getting the cigarettes from their families takes 52.2% and 73.7% respectively, with statistical significance (chi2 = 23.72, P < 0.005). In case of the awareness about the harm from smoking, although the rates of students that realise it takes 90% in the suburb and the rural areas, their awareness and attitudes towards the harm from negative smoking are both a little bit poor, but this awareness in the suburb region is still better than in the rural area.


CONCLUSIONS
The rates of possible smokers among the Hui minority primary school students in the backward region of Ningxia Province were more higher. And it has a close relationship with their living environment.
Yin
Xiuling
X
Ningxia Teachers University, Guyuan 756000, China. yxl-1968@163.com
D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D012423:Rural Health; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution