Prevalence and Factors Related to Tobacco Use in Adolescent Students

Introduction: Tobacco use is a major public health problem, a cause of premature and preventable morbidity and mortality, which often begins in adolescence. Objective: To analyze the prevalence and associated factors related to tobacco consumption among secondary, high school and university students of Caceres (Spain). Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of secondary, high school and university students from the city of Caceres, over 14 years old. Sociodemographic and consumption data and factors related to tobacco were collected. For the bivariate analysis Chi square was used for the qualitative variable. Results: 209 students have participated. The prevalence of tobacco consumption was usually 27.8%, 27.8% occasional and 44.5% were not consumers. The female gender with 30.6% and 20-24 years, those that contain the highest proportion of smokers. The factors related to starting smoking were other reasons (44%), tendency (16.4%) and relaxation (18.1%), which shows statistically significant differences (p<0.005). Almost all smokers, whether habitual or casual, have thought about stopping smoking (47.4%) or maybe they could try it (37.1%). Conclusion: The rate of tobacco users is high among students. This suggests the need to implement health education programs to prevent and reduce the rate of tobacco use since adolescence, to prevent them from adopting or maintaining this habit in adulthood, since a high percentage of smokers have thought in quitting smoking.