INTRODUCTION
Smoking is one of the most common health risk factors. Monitoring of smoking among adolescents allows to control the situation and make timely adjustments in preventive work.
OBJECTIVE
To identify features and study the dynamics of smoking in urban adolescents-school students based on data of conducted in 2019—2020 yrs. monitoring.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Tobacco smoking was studied among urban adolescents-school students aged 15—17 years, students of 9—11 grades. The observation period was 2019—2020 yrs. The sample formation was carried out by multistage sampling. The study included participants from 12 cities from 6 federal districts of Russia. A total of 14 084 adolescents were examined: 6535 (46.4%) boys and 7549 (53.6%) girls. Statistical data processing included obtaining absolute and relative indicators. The Pearson’s chi-squared test (c2) was used to calculate the statistical significance of differences.
RESULTS
The prevalence of smoking among adolescents-school students was 9.8 per 100 boys and 8.6 per 100 girls, and girls smoked on par with boys (p>0.05). Daily smokers were 7.5 out of 100 boys and 5.8 out of 100 girls (p>0.05). The leading motive of smoking showed the developing dependence on tobacco («like», «habit», «cannot quit»). Smoking initiation was in the age between 10 and 17 years, with a peak of 13—14 years. The first smoking test in 80% of cases was related to curiosity. Awareness of the dangers of smoking is high (about 90%), but only 40% of adolescents receive information from reliable sources.
CONCLUSION
Smoking among urban adolescents-school students in 2019—2020 yrs. decreased by 2.5 times in comparison with 2010—2011 yrs., but girls started to smoke on par with boys. Adolescents receive information about smoking from random, far from being scientific sources in 60% of cases. Due to this, anti-smoking prevention must be provided to a larger number of school students and it should be started in primary grades.
