An epidemiological study of smoking in urban school boys of Ajmer

In a survey of 1000 school boys aged 8–16 years, 52 (5.2%) were smokers Thirty of them were regular smokers, of whom 27 took to smoking between 10–14 years of age. Only six children thought that they smoked for pleasure. None of the children, whose mothers had university or higher vocational education smoked, (P<0.01) Parental smoking also seemed to influence smoking behaviour of their children. Type of the family-nuclear or joint-did dot affect the smoking prevalence, but children occupying special position in the family smoked more frequently, (P<0.001). Most of the smokers belonged to middle or poor socio-economic group and none to upper socioeconomic group (P<0.001).