This study was funded by EC BIOMED II grant BMH4-CT98-3721, Transnational variation in prevalence of adolescent smoking: the role of national tobacco policies and the school and family environments.Publisher PD

Currie, Candace

Griesbach, D

English

This study was funded by EC BIOMED II grant BMH4-CT98-3721, Transnational variation in prevalence of adolescent smoking: the role of national tobacco policies and the school and family environments

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C A S FACT SHEET 4 April 2001news from the international study CONTROL OF ADOLESCENT SMOKING BackgroundThis report will compare the health lifestyles of 15-year-oldsmokers and non-smokers in Scotland.  Data was gathered in1998 under the auspices of the Scottish component of theHealth Behaviours in School-aged Children: WHO Cross-nationalStudy (HBSC). The aim is to describe the overall patterning ofadolescent behaviour in relation to smoking so that a betterunderstanding of smokers’ lifestyles can be gained.  Thisinformation can be used to inform health education and healthpromotion activities, in particular smoking prevention andcessation programmes for adolescents.Data will be presented which shows the relationshipsbetween smoking and diet, exercise and fitness and alcohol and cannabis use.  Associations between smoking and variousminor health complaints such as headache, stomach-ache,feelings of depression and difficulties in getting to sleep willalso be described.DietFigure 1 shows that daily smokers were more likely thanoccasional smokers or non-smokers to hardly ever or never eatfresh fruit or cooked vegetables.  For example, 18.2% of dailysmokers reported hardly ever or never eating fresh fruit,compared to 11.4% and 14.1% of non-smokers and occasionalsmokers respectively.  Nearly a third (30.5%) of daily smokersreported hardly ever or never eating cooked vegetables,Smoking and other health-relatedbehaviours and health indicatorsin Scottish adolescentsDawn Griesbach and Candace CurrieThis report compares the health lifestyles of 15-year-old smokers and non-smokers in Scotland. The aim is to describethe overall patterning of adolescent health behaviour in relation to smoking so that a better understanding ofsmokers’ lifestyles can be gained.  The data were collected in 1998 from a sample of 1,724 fifteen-year-oldScottish secondary school students, as part of the EC-funded project, Control of Adolescent Smoking (CAS).~ Adolescent daily smokers were more likely than occasional smokers or non-smokers to hardly ever or nevereat fresh fruit, or cooked vegetables.  Daily smokers were also more likely to drink sugared fizzy drinks andeat chips at least once a day.~ Smokers were significantly less likely than non-smokers to exercise frequently.  In particular, boys whosmoked were less likely than non-smoking boys to exercise four hours or more each week.  There was nosignificant association between smoking status and frequency of exercise in girls.~ Daily smokers, both boys and girls, were significantly more likely than non-smokers to have been drunk morethan ten times.  They were also more likely to have used cannabis three times or more.~ Occasional smokers and daily smokers were significantly more likely than non-smokers to report frequent (atleast once a week) minor health complaints.C A S FACT SHEET 4 April 2001Figure 1: Association between adolescent smoking status andreports of “hardly ever or never” eating fresh fruit or cookedvegetables.Figure 2: Association between adolescent smoking status andreports of drinking sugared fizzy drinks and eating chips (friedpotatoes) at least once a day.05101520253035Daily smokersOccasional smokersNon-smokershardly ever/never eat cooked vegetableshardly ever/never eat fresh fruitcompared to only one-fifth of non-smokers and occasionalsmokers (19.5% and 20.1% respectively).  Figure 2 shows that daily smokers are also more likely thannon-smokers or occasional smokers to drink sugared fizzydrinks and eat chips every day.  Three-quarters (76.5%) of dailysmokers said they drank fizzy drinks at least once a day,compared to 63.5% of non-smokers and 65.8% of occasionalsmokers.  Forty-five per cent (44.7%) of daily smokers reportedthat they ate chips at least once a day, while only about one-third of non-smokers and occasional smokers said the same(32.0% of non-smokers and 32.2% of occasional smokers).There was some variation in this pattern for boys and girlsseparately, but in general, the data suggests that daily smokersare more likely than non-smokers or occasional smokers to eatfood with a high fat or sugar content.  Physical exercise and fitness levelsTable 1 shows the relationship between adolescents’ smokingstatus and the numbers of hours they reported exercising eachweek outside school.  In general, smokers exercised significantlyfewer hours each week than non-smokers (p < 0.01).  One-third(32.3%) of non-smokers reported exercising four hours or moreeach week, while 27.0% of occasional smokers and 22.5% ofdaily smokers said the same.  Although boys were more likelythan girls to exercise frequently, boys who smoked daily weresignificantly less likely than their peers to exercise four hours ormore each week (p < 0.01).  For example, 45.6% of non-smokingboys said they exercised four hours or more in a week, whereasonly 29.6% of smokers said the same.  For girls, there was nosignificant association between smoking status and frequencyof exercise.Occasional and daily smokers, both boys and girls, werealso more likely than non-smokers to think of themselves as notvery fit or very unfit.Alcohol and cannabis useThere were significant associations between smoking status andalcohol and cannabis use in Scottish 15-year-olds (p < 0.001).Table 2 shows that daily smokers, both boys and girls, weremore likely than non-smokers or occasional smokers to havebeen drunk more than ten times.  Only 10.0% of non-smokersreported having been drunk more than 10 times.  However, one-quarter (24.8%) of occasional smokers and 44.3% of dailysmokers said the same.Similarly, only 10.1% of non-smokers reported that they hadused cannabis three times or more, while one-third (32.2%) ofoccasional smokers and nearly three-quarters (73.0%) of dailysmokers said the same.   While these percentages variedslightly for boys and girls, the general pattern was the same.0102030405060708090Daily smokersOccasional smokersNon-smokerseat chips/fried potatoes at least once a daydrink sugared fizzy drinks at least once a dayPercentage of young peoplePercentage of young peopleC A S FACT SHEET 4 April 2001Minor health complaints and symptomsTable 3 compares percentages of non-smokers, occasionalsmokers and daily smokers who reported having certain minorhealth complaints.  Occasional and daily smokers weresignificantly more likely than non-smokers to report frequentsymptoms of headache, stomach-ache, feeling low ordepressed, irritability, having difficulties getting to sleep, andfeeling dizzy (p < 0.001 in all cases).  For example, while one-third (34.3%) of non-smokers complained of having a headacheat least once week, 42.9% of occasional smokers and 45.8% ofdaily smokers had the same complaint.   Smokers were also lesslikely than non-smokers to report having these symptoms“hardly ever” or “never”.  Percentages varied for boys and girls,but in general, the pattern remained the same, except in thecase of girls’ reports of symptoms of headache; there was nostatistically significant association between smoking status andfrequency of headaches in girls.Table 1: Association between adolescent smoking status and hours of exercise (outside school hours) each weekM (%) F (%) Total (%)Hours per week of exercise Non- Occ. Daily  Non- Occ. Daily  Non- Occ. Daily  (outside school hours) smokers smokers smokers  smokers smokers smokers  smokers smokers smokers4 hours or more  45.6 43.6  29.6  19.0 17.2 17.5  32.3 27.0 22.5 2-3 hours 29.5 23.6 32.2  33.7  36.6 31.8  31.6 31.8 32.0 an hour or less  24.9 32.7 38.2 47.3 46.2 50.7 36.1 41.2 45.5 Total (n) (594) (55) (152) (596) (93) (217) (1190) (148) (369) Significance (p) ** n.s.  ** ** – p < 0.01.Table 2: Associations between adolescent smoking status and drinking, and between smoking status and cannabis useM (%) F (%) Total (%)Have you ever had so much Non- Occ. Daily  Non- Occ. Daily  Non- Occ. Dailyalcohol that you were really drunk? smokers smokers smokers  smokers smokers smokers  smokers smokers smokersNo, never 35.3 8.9  7.7 40.2 3.2 4.5 37.8  5.4  5.9   Yes, once 20.8 12.5 11.6 19.7 12.9 10.0  20.3 12.8 10.7 Yes, several times 31.9 41.1 38.1 32.1 66.7 40.0  32.0 57.0 39.2 Yes, more than 10 times 11.9 37.5 42.6  8.0 17.2 45.5  10.0 24.8 44.3  Total (n)  (595) (56) (155)  (599) (93) (220)  (1194) (149) (375)Significance (p)   *** *** ***  Have you ever used cannabis? Never 70.5 26.8  9.1  80.5 39.8 12.7  75.5 34.9 11.2   Once or twice 15.8 23.2 13.6  12.9 38.7 17.3  14.3 32.9 15.8 Three times or more  13.7 50.0 77.3 6.6 21.5 70.0  10.1 32.2 73.0 Total (n)  (590) (56) (154) (595) (93) (220) (1185) (149) (374) Significance (p) ***  *** *** *** – p < 0.001.Designed and produced for CAHRU by Susan Halcro, VisualResources, The University of Edinburgh.CreditsThis report is taken from a larger report entitled, Control ofAdolescent Smoking in Scotland. The full report is availablefrom CAHRU at the address shown at right.This study was funded by EC BIOMED II grant BMH4-CT98-3721, Transnational variation in prevalence of adolescentsmoking: the role of national tobacco policies and the schooland family environments. Short title:  Control of AdolescentSmoking (CAS). Participating countries/regions included Austria,French-speaking Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the German stateof North Rhine-Westphalia, Norway, Scotland and Wales.  Thestudy was co-ordinated by the Scottish team, Candace Currieand Dawn Griesbach, at the University of Edinburgh.  Datacollection in Scotland was funded by the Health Education Boardfor Scotland (HEBS) under the auspices of the Scottishcomponent of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children:WHO Cross-National Study (HBSC).  The opinions expressed inthis report are those of the authors and not the funders.Further information about the CAS study isavailable from the project co-ordinator:Dr Candace CurrieChild & Adolescent Health Research Unit (CAHRU)Department of PE, Sport and Leisure StudiesThe University of EdinburghWeir’s Land, Holyrood RoadEdinburgh EH8 8AQTel: +44 131 651 6272Email: Candace.Currie@ed.ac.ukC A S FACT SHEET 4 April 2001Table 3: Association between adolescent smoking status and reported minor health complaintsM (%) F (%) Total (%)In the last six months, how often Non- Occ. Daily  Non- Occ. Daily  Non- Occ. Daily have you had the following: smokers smokers smokers  smokers smokers smokers  smokers smokers smokersheadache At least once a week 23.1 29.1 34.6 45.3 51.1 53.6 34.3 42.9 45.8 About every month 30.0  30.9 29.4 30.7 31.5 25.9 30.3 31.3 27.3 Hardly ever or never 46.9 40.0 35.9  24.0 17.4 20.5 35.4 25.9 26.8 Total (n) (597) (55) (153) (600) (92) (220) (1197) (147) (373)Significance (p) * n.s. *** stomach-ache  At least once a week 10.2 16.4 20.3 23.5 30.4 42.3  16.9 25.2 33.2About every month 25.3 29.1 22.2 55.1 54.3 45.0 40.3 44.9  35.7 Hardly ever or never 64.4  54.5 57.5 21.5 15.2 12.7  42.9 29.9 31.1 Total (n) (596) (55) (153) (601) (92) (220) (1197) (147) (373) Significance (p) *  *** ***  feeling low or depressed  At least once a week 11.1 9.1 20.3 25.0 36.6 32.3 18.0 26.4 27.3 About every month 15.3 14.5 17.6 31.6 37.6 33.2 23.5 29.1 26.8 Hardly ever or never 73.7 76.4 62.1 43.4 25.8 34.5 58.5 44.6 45.8 Total (n) (596) (55) (153) (601) (93) (220) (1197) (148) (373) Significance (p) * ** *** difficulties in getting to sleep  At least once a week 24.6 25.5 36.8  33.1 41.9 44.1 28.9 35.8 41.1 About every month  17.9 18.2 17.8 17.1 24.7 20.0 17.5 22.3 19.1 Hardly ever or never 57.5 56.4 45.4  49.8 33.3 35.9 53.6 41.9  39.8 Total (n) (597) (55) (152) (601) (93) (220) (1198) (148) (372) Significance (p) * *** *** * – p < 0.05; ** – p < 0.01; *** – p < 0.001.

News from the internation study Control of Adolescent Smoking. : Smoking and other health-related behaviours and health indicators in Scottish adolescents

News from the internation study Control of Adolescent Smoking. : Smoking and other health-related behaviours and health indicators in Scottish adolescents

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