title: Adolescent tobacco use and health in Southeast Asia.
abstract: The use of tobacco by adolescents is a major public health concern worldwide. There are 1.2 billion smokers globally, of which more than 50% are young people. The Southeast Asian countries have about 600 million tobacco smokers within the global burden of tobacco users. Most smokers begin at early stage of life and persist through adulthood. Malaysia alone has about 5 million smokers, 20% of whom are younger than 18 years old. Many factors are implicated in the continuous rising trend of tobacco use among adolescents in Southeast Asia. A triad of family, environmental, and individual factors synergistically acts to motivate adolescents toward smoking. This article discusses the current trends of tobacco use and implications of increasing rise in adolescent smoking in the Southeast Asia region.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. nabilla@ummc.edu.my
authors.forename: Nabilla
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al-Sadat
authors.forename: A Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Misau
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zarihah
authors.forename: Dahlui
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maznah
authors.lastname: Tin Tin Su
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001210:Asia, Southeastern / Q000453:epidemiology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D011634:Public Health; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology