title: Smoking stage relations to peer, school and parental factors among secondary school students in Kinta, Perak.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To identify the prevalence of different stages of smoking and differences in associated risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thos longitudinal study started in February 2011 and the subjects were 2552 form one students aged between twelve to thirteen years of from 15 government secondary schools of Kinta, Perak. Data on demographic, parental, school and peer factors were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. We examined the effects of peer, school and parental factors on the five stages of smoking; never smokers, susceptible never smokers, experimenters, current smokers and ex-smokers, at baseline.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the sample, 19.3% were susceptible never smokers, 5.5% were current smokers 6% were experimenters and 3.1% were ex-smokers. Gender, ethnicity, best friends' smoking status, high peer pressure, higher number of relatives who smoked and parental monitoring were found to be associated with smoking stages. Presence of parent-teen conflict was only associated with susceptible never smokers and experimenters whereas absence of home discussion on smoking hazards was associated with susceptible never smokers and current smokers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified variations in the factors associated with the different stages of smoking. Our results highlight that anti-smoking strategies should be tailored according to the different smoking stages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia. premilausm@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Premila Devi
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Jeganathan
authors.forename: Noran N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Hairi
authors.forename: Nabilla
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al Sadat
authors.forename: Karuthan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chinna
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires