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Feb. 16, 2006 -- Girls too young to vote are shaking up global research on smoking.
When the CDC's Charles Warren, PhD, and colleagues surveyed students worldwide aged 13-15 years old about tobacco use, they expected more boys than girls to be current cigarette smokers.
Warren's team was right about that. But the gap was narrower than they expected. Overall, the survey showed that 10.5% of boys were current smokers; 6.7% of girls were current smokers.
Men and women have a bigger gap in smoking than boys and girls, the study shows.
If those teens keep smoking at the same rate as they age, there could be "important implications for the global burden of chronic diseases," the researchers state in The Lancet.
The findings are "troubling," write Warren and colleagues. They call for a "redoubling of efforts" to prevent or stop young people from using tobacco products.
Tobacco Goes Young and Global
The Global Youth Tobacco Survey was done at 395 sites in 131 countries. The surveys were tailored to each country, translated into local languages, and given anonymously at school.
Topics included current cigarette smoking and use of other tobacco products including snuff, chewing tobacco, cigars, pipes, and cigarillos. Among the findings:
Regional results include:
Countries that haven't completed the study include Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and most of western Europe, the researchers note.
Secondhand Smoke Common
Many students had been exposed to secondhand smoke in the previous week, the study shows.
"More than 30% of students in every region of the world were exposed to secondhand smoke at home, and more than 45% in every region were exposed to secondhand smoke in public places," write Warren and colleagues.
European students were most likely to have been exposed to secondhand smoke, at home and in public. Exposure to secondhand smoke was common among teenaged smokers.
"Among students who currently smoked, more than 60% in all regions were exposed to smoke at home and more than 70% in all regions were exposed to smoke in public," the researchers write.
Tempted to Try Smoking
Many people start smoking at a young age. The surveys tried to identify nonsmoking students who might start smoking in the next year.
First, students were asked, "If one of your best friends offered you a cigarette, would you smoke it?" Those who said, "No," were then asked, "At any time in the next 12 months do you think you will smoke a cigarette?"
Nearly one in five students (18%) who had never smoked cigarettes reported being susceptible to smoking during the coming year, the researchers write. That vulnerability was stronger in boys than girls and strongest in Europe and the Americas, the study shows.
SOURCES: Warren, C. The Lancet, Feb. 17, 2006; online edition. News release, The Lancet.