Prevalence of tobacco smoking and impact of peer groups on smoking behavior among adolescent students

Background: Tobacco in both smoked and smokeless forms is a major killer world wide. It is responsible for100 million premature deaths in the 20th century, and if the current trends of tobacco use continue, this number is expected to rise to 1 billion in the 21st century. Objectives: To study the prevalence of tobacco smoking among adolescent students in rural and urban schools in Vizianagaram, and to study the impact of peer groups on their smoking habit, To give suitable recommendations based on findings of this study. Methods: A community based observational cross sectional study was conducted for a period of 2 months among adolescent boys aged 13 to 16 years attending high school from rural and one from urban area were selected by simple random technique and direct one to one interview was done among all the students who are willing to participate in the study. A total of 194 students were interviewed. Results: In the current study it was observed that 10.3% of the participants were current smokers. The mean age of initiation of smoking was found to be 14.1±0.912 years. Peer group influence on smokers in rural area was found to be 58.33% and in urban area it was about 62.5%. Conclusion: It is concluded that adolescent youth smoking is prevalent at high level in both urban and rural areas. It is showing an increase in attitude towards smoking among adolescent youth which has to be reduced with necessary interventions like health education and surveillance by the elderly at home and teachers at school. Peer group impact is found to be at alarming proportion in the study which has to be controlled by educating the peer as a first step