Prevalence and Risk Factors for Initiation of

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Mar 2, 2009 - of Northern Greece were studied using a questionnaire in order to ... students; Kozani 2,441 students; Ptolemaida 1,356 students; Florina 1,011.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009, 6, 971-979; doi:10.3390/ijerph6030971 OPEN ACCESS

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ISSN 1660-4601 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph Article

Prevalence and Risk Factors for Initiation of Smoking in Greek High-School Students Lazaros T. Sichletidis *, Diamantis A. Chloros, Anastasios I. Tsiotsios and Dionisios G. Spyratos Laboratory for the Investigation of Environmental Diseases, Pulmonary Clinic, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece; E-Mails: [email protected] (D.A.C.); [email protected] (A.I.T.); [email protected] (D.G.S.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +30-2310992363; Fax: +30-2313- 307316 Received: 15 December 2008 / Accepted: 14 February 2009 / Published: 2 March 2009

Abstract: The smoking habits of 9,276 high-school students (15-18 years old) in six cities of Northern Greece were studied using a questionnaire in order to determine the prevalence and possible risk factors for initiation of smoking. We observed that 29.6% of high-school students (32.6% of boys and 26.7% of girls) were current smokers. A percentage of 43.3% had started smoking before the age of 14. Reactive behaviour towards parents’ and teachers’ advice (40.2%) and the existence of smoking friends (40.1%) were the main reasons of initiation. A well-planned integrated anti-smoking campaign is urgently required, especially among students and teachers. Keywords: Adolescence; epidemiology; Greece; high-school students; smoking.

1. Introduction Most data on the prevalence and the trends of smoking habits have been provided by the USA and only over the last years relevant research has been initiated in other countries, mostly within the framework of the worldwide anti-smoking campaign being carried out under the auspices of the WHO. In Greece, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has recently implemented an anti-smoking campaign. The need of undertaking this new campaign has been identified by the identification of alarming new

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data, one of which is the first position of Greece among European Union countries in lung neoplasms in young men (