How Connectedness Contributes to Experimental Smoking Among Rural Youth: Developmental and Ecological Analyses

The influences of peer, sibling, and parents smoking on adolescents initiation of tobacco use have been explained as a function of peer pressure, genetics, and social learning processes, but rarely in combination or with assessments of the quality of these relationships. This study examined the additional contributions of connectedness to friends, siblings, parents, and teachers beyond the effects of friend, sibling, and parental smoking using logistic regression analyses with a cross-sectional middle and high school sample of 303 rural adolescents. Friends and siblings smoking, and connectedness to friends, were the strongest predictors of experimental smoking. Parental smoking and connectedness to parents and to teachers were significant predictors of experimental smoking when considered independently, but not after accounting for friend and sibling factors. Connectedness to parents and teachers decreased the odds of experimental smoking, while connectedness to friends increased the odds.Editors Strategic Implications: This strategy of assessing connectedness to–and smoking behaviors of—friends, siblings, teachers, and parents shows promise in predicting teens cigarette smoking choices. The finding that the negative effects of unconventional connectedness and smoking by friends and siblings outweigh positive effects of connectedness to adults awaits replication with different samples and measures.     

Promotive Factors and Psychosocial Adjustment Among Urban Youth

Background

Urban youth are often exposed to compounded risk factors which make them more vulnerable to negative outcomes. Research examining promotive factors which may reduce vulnerabilities to poor psychosocial adjustment among this population is limited.

Objective

The current study addresses this limitation by examining the impact of self-efficacy and positive expectations about the future, as promotive factors, on levels of depressive and anxious symptomatology, sense of belonging, and friendship among a sample of urban youth.

Methods

Data are from 1202 4th and 5th grade students enrolled at 27 elementary schools in a high poverty, high minority school district in the Southeastern United States.

Results

Using ordinary least squares regression, analyses reveal that promotive factors are significant predictors of psychosocial adjustment and thus have implications for improving negative outcomes among urban minority youth.

Conclusions

The findings suggests that interventions aimed at increasing self-efficacy and positive expectations about the future may reduce child and adolescent vulnerability to negative outcomes associated with poor psychosocial adjustment.

     

Exposure to Pro-tobacco Messages and Smoking Status Among Mexican Origin Youth

Though several studies have found a positive relationship between exposure to tobacco advertising and/or promotional marketing and smoking status among youth, few have examined these relationships specifically for youth of Mexican origin. The current analysis examines the relationship between perceived exposure to pro-tobacco messages and progression through the smoking continuum from trying to repeated use in a cohort of Mexican origin youth ages 14–19. Data were collected via personal in-home interviews at two time points—in 2008–2009 and 2010–2011 (N = 942). Smoking status, exposure to pro-tobacco messages from five major media sources, demographic variables and established risk factors for adolescent smoking were measured at both waves. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s Chi square tests, ANOVA, and multinomial logistic regression. Adolescent perception of the number of pro-tobacco messages seen in 2008–2009 was unrelated to smoking less than one cigarette assessed in 2010–2011. However, having seen a higher number of pro-tobacco messages was significantly associated with being more likely to have smoked more than one cigarette (OR = 1.21; 95 % CI 1.03–1.42) controlling for demographic factors and known psychosocial risk factors of smoking behavior. Results suggest that the more pro-tobacco messages Mexican origin youth are able to recall, the further their progression through the smoking trajectory a year later. These youth are clearly susceptible to pro-tobacco messaging, and our results underscore the need to restrict all forms of messaging that promote tobacco use.     

拉萨市4所中专学校吸烟状况调查分析

分析拉萨市４ 所中专学校９４５ 名学生吸烟状况及因素，其中，男生吸烟率为７０５２ ％ ，女生吸烟率为１３０９ ％ 。最初吸烟心理觉得好玩者，男女生分别占３８２４ ％ 、５２７４ ％ ，第一支烟来源以同学或朋友给的为主，男女生分别占５４８ ％ 、３７９４ ％ 。学生中对吸烟持反对态度的占７８２ ％ 。吸烟学生中有５４１２ ％ 表示愿意戒烟。吸烟最多为逢年过节，最多的地方为朋友家，经济条件宽裕的学生吸烟率高，父母文化程度不同，对子吸烟行为影响无显著性差异。     

Determinants of Smoking Behaviour Among Secondary School Students in Bangladesh

Despite established country’s tobacco control law, cigarette smoking by the young people and the magnitude of nicotine dependence among the students is alarming in Bangladesh. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of smoking and factors influencing it among the secondary school students. A two-stage cluster sampling was used for selection of schools with probability proportional to enrollment size followed by stratified random sampling of government and private schools. The 70-item questionnaire included ‘core GYTS’ (Global Youth Tobacco Survey) and other additional questions were used to collect relevant information. Analysis showed that the prevalence of smoking was 12.3% among boys and 4.5% among girls, respectively. The mean age at initiation of smoking was 10.8 years with standard deviation of 2.7 years. Logistic regression analysis revealed that boys are 2.282 times likely to smoked than girls and it was 1.786 times higher among the students aged 16 years and above than their younger counterparts. Smoking by teachers appeared to be the strong predictor for students smoking behaviour (OR 2.206, 95% CI: 1.576, 3.088) followed by peer influence (OR 1.988, 95% CI: 1.178, 3.356). Effective smoking prevention program should to be taken to reduce smoking behaviour. The school curricula had less impact in preventing smoking except teacher’s smoking behaviour.     

Echocardiogram Utilization Among Rural and Urban Veterans

Purpose: To compare echocardiography use among urban and rural veterans and whether differences could be accounted for by distance. Methods: We used Veterans Administration (VA) administrative data from 1999 to 2007 to identify regular users of the VA Healthcare System (VA users) who did and did not receive echocardiography. Each veteran was categorized as residing in urban, rural or highly rural areas using RUCA codes. Poisson regression was used to compare echocardiography utilization rates among veterans residing in each area after adjusting for demographics, comorbidities, clustering of patients within VA networks and distance to the nearest VA medical center offering echocardiography. Findings: Our study included 22.7 million veterans of whom 1.3 million (5.7%) received at least 1 echocardiogram. Of echocardiography recipients, 69.2% lived in urban, 22.0% in rural and 8.8% in highly rural areas. In analyses adjusting for patient demographics, comorbidities, and clustering, utilization of echocardiography was modestly lower for highly rural and rural veterans compared with urban veterans (42.0 vs 40.1 vs 43.1 echocardiograms per 1,000 VA users per year for highly rural, rural and urban, respectively; P < .001). After further adjusting for distance, echocardiography utilization was somewhat higher for veterans in highly rural and rural areas than it was for urban areas (44.9 vs 41.8 vs 40.8 for highly rural, rural and urban, respectively; P < .001). Conclusions: Echocardiography utilization among rural and highly rural veterans was marginally lower than for urban veterans, but these differences can be accounted for by the greater distance of more rural veterans from facilities offering echocardiograms.     

成都市某区青年警察吸烟现状及健康教育调查

目的了解成都市某区青年警察的吸烟现状及健康教育方式,为决策部门制定相关控烟政策提供依据。方法2013-03-16/05-07,调查对象为成都市某区178位青年警察,调查内容主要包括调查对象的人口学特征、对吸烟危害的知晓情况、家庭、单位控烟状况等。运用χ2检验和秩和检验等方法进行统计分析。所有数据采用SPSS 13.0软件处理。结果吸烟人数113人,吸烟率为63.48%。吸烟和不吸烟人群在年龄（χ2=3.50,P〉0.05）、文化程度（χ2=4.74,P〉0.05）、婚姻状况（χ2=3.60,P〉0.05）等方面差异均无统计学意义。吸烟与不吸烟人群相比,关于用过滤嘴抽烟能否降低危害（z=-2.39,P〉0.05）、被动吸烟对健康有无危害（z=-8.68,P〈0.01）、世界卫生组织提倡的健康生活方式（z=-5.75,P〈0.01）回答正确率差异有统计学意义。吸烟和不吸烟人群家庭控烟（χ2=0.79,P〉0.05）、单位控烟（χ2=0.36,P〉0.05）差异均无统计学意义。结论成都市某区青年警察对吸烟危害的认识不足,建议从宏观和微观两个层面,对其开展烟草健康危害教育。     

Menthol Brand Switching Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey

This study examines patterns of menthol and nonmenthol cigarette use from 2003 to 2005 in a cohort of smokers, aged 16 to 24 years in the National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey. At follow-up, 15.0% of baseline menthol smokers had switched to nonmentholated cigarettes; by contrast, 6.9% of baseline nonmenthol smokers had switched to mentholated cigarettes. Differences in switching patterns were evident by gender, race/ethnicity, parental education, and smoking frequency. These data support previous evidence that young smokers start with mentholated cigarettes and progress to nonmentholated cigarettes.Following enactment of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in June 2009,1 fruit, candy, and clove characterizing flavorings in cigarettes were banned to reduce youth smoking initiation. Menthol is the only characterizing flavor that was not banned outright by the act. Nationally representative surveys have shown an age gradient in menthol use, with the youngest smokers (aged 12–17 years) most likely to smoke mentholated cigarettes.2^,3 Studies of adolescents report that middle school smokers and recent initiates are more likely to use mentholated cigarettes than high school smokers and those smoking longer than 1 year, respectively.4 With other studies,5–7 these results argue that menthol facilitates smoking initiation and that mentholated cigarettes serve as starter tobacco products for youths.4Although these nationally representative studies document an age gradient in menthol use, they do not address smoking patterns in the same individuals over time and whether there is a disproportionate shift from early use of mentholated cigarettes to nonmentholated cigarette use later on. The current study assesses patterns in menthol and nonmenthol cigarette use over time in young smokers, aged 16 to 24 years.     

A Multi-Level Analysis Examining how Smoking Friends, Parents, and Older Students in the School Environment are Risk Factors for Susceptibility to Smoking Among Non-Smoking Elementary School Youth

The purpose of this study was to examine how social models for smoking are related to smoking susceptibility among a sample of non-smoking elementary school students. The Tobacco Module of the School Health Action, Planning and Evaluation System (SHAPES) was administered to 6,431 students (grades 6 to 8) in 57 elementary schools in the province of Ontario, Canada. Multi-level logistic regression analysis was used to examine how smoking friends, parents, and the prevalence of smoking among grade 8 students at a school were related to smoking susceptibility among the 2,478 non-smoking grade 6 and 7 students. Findings indicate that non-smoking grade 6 and 7 students are more likely to be susceptible to smoking if they have (a) smoking friends, (b) a mother who smokes, or (c) two or more close friends who smoke and attend a school with a relatively high smoking rate among the grade 8 students. Sub-populations of non-smoking youth may be at increased risk for smoking because of the elementary school they attend. Future school-based smoking prevention programs might benefit from targeting prevention programming activities to the schools that are putting students at the greatest risk for smoking.     

Antitobacco Media Awareness of Rural Youth Compared to Suburban and Urban Youth in Indiana

PURPOSE: This study examined the awareness and impact of antitobacco media messages among rural, suburban, and urban youth. METHOD: Self-administered questionnaires were received from 1,622, 1,059, and 1,177 middle school (sixth, seventh, and eighth grade) students in rural, suburban, and urban locations, respectively. Logistic regression compared media awareness and impact among the groups, controlling for grade, gender, race, and smoking behavior. RESULTS: Compared to rural youth, suburban youth were more likely to recall media messages about the dangerous health effects of tobacco use (odds ratio [OR] = 1.94) and have their personal choice to use tobacco affected by the messages (OR = 1.85). Suburban and urban youth more often recalled antitobacco messages (OR = 2.00 and 2.15), reported that the messages made them think about the dangers of tobacco use (OR = 2.02 and 1.47), believed that these ads prevent youth from initiating tobacco use (OR = 3.21 and 1.46) and stop youth from using tobacco (OR = 2.25 and 1.47), and recalled seeing specific campaign television ads (OR = 3.72 and 3.57). Urban youth were more likely to recall specific campaign messages on the radio (OR = 1.58). Neither suburban nor urban youth differed from the rural youth on whether the campaign-specific radio and television ads made them think about not using tobacco. CONCLUSIONS: The results support the need for targeting antitobacco media announcements to youth, based on their residence.     

Predicting Cigarette Smoking Among Adolescents Using Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Approaches

ABSTRACT: The ability to identify groups of children at risk of initiating a smoking habit may prove useful in developing effective smoking prevention programs. This report includes data collected over a three-year period, and attempts to predict adolescents' smoking behavior using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. In addition, predictor variables reflecting both interpersonal and intrapersonal domains were included. Results indicated the highest rates of accurate classification into smoking categories were achieved with cross-sectional analyses. In addition, interpersonal variables emerged as most important in all analyses. Implications for smoking prevention programming are discussed.     

农村青少年生殖健康相关知识认知情况分析

目的 了解我国农村地区青少年对生殖健康相关知识知晓情况,为有效策划和开展青少年生殖健康教育项目提供依据.方法 在安徽、山西、甘肃、青海、广西农村地区运用整群抽样法,按年龄段选取校内外13～22岁男女青少年共2 002名接受问卷调查,并从中随机选取对象参加专题小组讨论.结果 66.8%～87.2%青少年听说过"生殖健康"一词,大多数是在电视或互联网的广告中听说的.大部分青少年表示"说不清"或"不知道"什么是生殖健康.在被告知开罗国际人发大会的生殖健康的定义和含义后,青少年认为的"青少年生殖健康"涉及正常的生长发育、恰当的与异性交往、没有艾滋病与性传播疾病、正确的性念度、和谐的性关系、懂得合理避孕等.青少年对所列生殖健康知识的知晓率为30.2%～45.5%,校外男青少年最高(P<0.05).结论 应将正确理解生殖健康纳入青少年生殖健康教育工作中.青少年生殖健康知识水平有待进一步提高.     

青岛市农村吸烟与被动吸烟状况调查分析

目的了解青岛市农村居民吸烟与被动吸烟状况,分析影响因素,为决策部门制定干预策略提供依据。方法在青岛市5个县市的村庄中随机抽取5个村庄的13岁以上的常住村民共1 837人进行问卷调查。结果村民的总吸烟率为26.8%,现在吸烟率为23.2%,重度吸烟率为10.4%,40~49岁年龄组为吸烟最严重的人群;人群被动吸烟率为41.6%,家庭是被动吸烟危害的主要场所,占29.1%。结论青岛市农村吸烟与被动吸烟状况不容乐观,应当结合农村地区的实际情况,加强政策引导,针对不同人群开展控烟健康教育与健康促进,降低吸烟率和减少被动吸烟危害。     

Patterns of Union Formation Among Urban Minority Youth in the United States

Since 1990, several large surveys of sexual behavior have been conducted. In addition to collecting general information on sexual histories, such as number of partners in the previous year and whether subjects ever used condoms, these studies collected information on sexual behavior with specific partners, or partnerships. The data are useful both for testing of substantive hypotheses about the determinants of behavior as well as for disease transition modeling. The objective of this paper is to use partnership histories to describe the union formation patterns of low-income youth living in Detroit. Data from the partnership histories will be used to illustrate the types of statistics that can be generated from these histories. Data will be presented on the number and types of unions (married/cohabiting, knew well, casual), the frequency and duration of these unions, the types of intercourse reported in each type of union, the patterns of mixing by age and ethnic group in each type of union, concurrency in unions, and condom use in unions.     

Drinking, Drug Use, and Driving Among Rural Midwestern Youth

Data concerning self-reported driving after drinking or using other drugs were collected from 3,382 junior and senior high school students in rural central and southern Illinois. Drinking, drug use, and driving increased steadily with age, with 42% of the 12th grade class indicating they had driven a car at least one time in the past six months after drinking or using other drugs. Riding with a driver who had been drinking also increased with age; 20% of the seventh grade sample had ridden in a car with a drinking driver, while 58% of the 12th grade sample reported having done so. Slightly more females had ridden in a car with a driver who had been drinking than males, while males reported higher rates of driving after drinking or using other drugs than females. Correlation analyses indicated 22 variables related significantly to drinking, drug use, and driving. Forward stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that 11 variables related significantly to riding as a passenger with a drinking driver. Thirteen variables were related significantly to driving after drinking or using other drugs. Frequency of alcohol use variables were the most powerful indicators of self-reported driving after drinking or using other drugs in this sample.