[Cigarette-smoking amongst students in a Colombian city: gender-associated factors].
OBJECTIVE
Establishing gender-related factors associated with cigarette-smoking amongst adolescent students in Santa Marta, Colombia.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was designed to ascertain factors associated with lastmonth (occasional) cigarette-smoking. Logistic regression was used for independently adjusting factors associated with girls' and boys' last-month occasional cigarette-smoking.


RESULTS
A total of 2,039 girls and 1,536 boys participated in the research. It was observed that 12.0 % of boys and 8.3 % of girls reported occasional cigarette-smoking during the last-month (OR=1.5). Cigarette-smoking in girls was strongly associated with drinking alcohol (OR=20.4), cannabis use (OR=9.3), inhalant use (OR=2.5), being older than fifteen (OR=2.5), having poor or mediocre last month academic achievement (OR=1.9) and attending private schools (OR=1.6). Cigarette-smoking in boys was related to drinking alcohol (OR=30.1), cannabis use (OR=13.0), cocaine use (OR=6.4), having poor or mediocre last month academic achievement (OR=2.7), having heterosexual orientation (OR=2.4) and having low socioeconomic status (OR=2.0).


CONCLUSIONS
Cigarette-smoking is differentially associated in boys and girls. Cigarettesmoking in girls was related to inhalant consumption, being older than 15 and attending a private school; in boys, it was associated with cocaine use, having heterosexual orientation and low socioeconomic status.
Campo-Arias
Adalberto
A
Instituto Investigación del Comportamiento Humano, Bogotá, Colombia. campoarias@comportamientohumano.org
Ceballos
Guillermo A
GA
Herazo
Edwin
E
D000293:Adolescent; D003105:Colombia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult