Smoking among Secondary Schoolchildren, 1993; England

<p>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</p>The <i>Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People</i> survey series began in 1982, under the name <i>Smoking among Secondary Schoolchildren</i>. The series initially aimed to provide national estimates of the proportion of secondary schoolchildren aged 11-15 who smoked, and to describe their smoking behaviour. Similar surveys were carried out every two years until 1998 to monitor trends in the prevalence of cigarette smoking. The survey then moved to an annual cycle, and questions on alcohol consumption and drug use were included. The name of the series was accordingly changed to <i>Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young Teenagers</i> to reflect this widened focus. In 2000, the series title changed, to <i>Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People</i>. The survey has been carried out every year in England since 2000 by the National Centre for Social Research (now NatCen Social Research) and the National Foundation for Educational Research. From 2005, the Information Centre for Health and Social Care (from 2013 the Health and Social Care Information Centre) took over from the Department of Health as sponsors. <br> <br> In alternate survey years, beyond the core questions, the remainder of the questionnaire focuses on either smoking and drinking or on drug taking. The 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011 surveys focused mainly on drugs, and the 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 surveys focused mainly on smoking and drinking. It should be noted that the UK Data Archive holds the survey only from 1988 onwards.<br> <br> In some years, the surveys have been carried out in Scotland and Wales, as well as England, to provide separate national estimates for these countries. In 2002, following a review of Scotland's future information needs in relation to drug misuse among schoolchildren, a separate Scottish series (see under GN 33354) was established by the Scottish Executive.<br> <br><B>Main Topics</B>:<br> The dataset includes variables from the questionnaire, diary and cotinine analysis. Topics covered in the questionnaire include: smoking prevalence rates, consumption levels, smoking experience, smoking behaviour of pupils and families, sources of cigarettes, passive smoking, health education/advertising. For the diary, pupils were asked to record by retrospective recall all cigarettes smoked in the previous seven days