title: Cigarette smoking and the influencing factors among adolescents in a secondary school in Malaysia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Smoking has always been a huge problem in Malaysia and its surrounding nations. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of cigarette smoking and to identify the influencing factors associated with smoking habits among adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was carried out on 226 respondents, using a questionnaire which had 4 sections: socio-demographic data, personal information, family information and social information. Data was analyzed using SPSS® version 16. For categorical variables, comparisons were made using Chi-square and for numerical variables a t-test was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The current smoker prevalence rate was 20.8% which showed a significant association between smoking and individual factors: level of knowledge on the effects of smoking (p < 0.05), significant association was seen between smoking and marital status of parents, smoking status of male siblings and various other aspects of the individuals themselves.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Concerted efforts involving various parties should be taken to curb or prevent this problem or the number of teenage smokers in the country will increase. This in the long run will invite problems to the well being of the adolescents themselves, their families, community and the nation as a whole.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center, Malaysia.
authors.forename: L P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Santhna
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Khalid
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Selamat
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mat
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires