Factors associated with current tobacco use among adolescents and young students

摘要

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of current tobacco use and its association with soci- odemographic factors and risk behaviors among adolescents and young students, according to gender. Methods: The sample consisted of students from the state public school network aged between 12 and 24 years, who answered the Brazilian version of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey questi- onnaire. The data were analyzed in SPSS software (v. 20.0), using Poisson regression to evaluate the prevalence ratio (PR) of the independent variables in relation to the outcome. p < 0.05 was established as the significance level. Results: The final analysis consisted of 1275 adolescents, of whom 716 (56.2%) were girls and 559 (43.8%) were boys. The prevalence of current tobacco use was 6.6% among girls and 9.7% among boys. In females, consuming alcohol in the last 30 days (3.91 [1.54---9.94]) and being 14 years old or younger (0.50 [0.26---0.96]) influenced current tobacco use. In the male gender, tobacco use in the last 30 days was influenced by current alcohol consumption (2.92 [1.21---7.08]) and involvement in physical fighting in the last 12 months (2.32 [1.32---4.09]). Conclusion: Although the prevalence of current tobacco use was low in both genders, the assessed population still presents a risk, since male involvement in physical fighting and current consumption of alcohol in both genders increased the probability of this population becoming regular tobacco users.