Pulmonary & Respiratory Medicine

Assessment of Knowledge, Behavior and Attitude of School Children towards Smoking

Abstract

Kristina Tot Veres, Biljana Zvezdin and Danijela Vukosav

Background: Tobacco use is one of the greatest threats for public health. The future prosperity of the tobacco industry depends directly on the youth’s tendency to experiment.

AIMS: The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of cigarette smoking and the tobacco consumption among school children between age 11 and 15, to examine the knowledge regarding what harmful effects tobacco smoke has on health and to assess the extent of exposure to tobacco smoke in the home environment.

Study design/Methods: The testing is a cross-sectional study conducted on students of upper grade levels in primary school “Miloje Čiplić” in Novi Bečej, Serbia in 2012. A total of 220 school children were tested. Upon verbal instructions they filled in a questionnaire containing 24 questions, designed after the model by a joint survey of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

Results: Of all respondents, 35% of students have already smoked their first cigarette, and 5.9% of them were everyday smokers. Thirty-two point seven percent of the children came from families where both the mother and the father were non-smokers, 24.1% of the them had both their parents smoking, 16.4% came from homes where the father was the only smoker and 20% where the mother was the only smoker. In 3.6% of cases someone else in the family was the smoker. 56.7% of the children were exposed to smoking in their homes and 74.5% of students were occasionally exposed to tobacco smoke because their guests were allowed to smoke. 25.5% of the students thought smoking was a disease. 44.5% of schoolchildren knew what secondhand smoking was, while 17.7% of students thought that it meant smoking in company of their friends, 6.4% thought it was occasional smoking. Of all children 27.3% stated they did not know what secondhand smoking was.

Conclusion: In this study it has been shown that a large percentage of surveyed schoolchildren between 11 and 15 years old have tried cigarettes, and the number of daily smokers is worryingly high.

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