Article

Factors Contributing To Cigarette Smoking Among Adolescents Aged 10-19 Years in Otuboi Town Council, Kalaki District

Abstract

Cigarette smoking among young people is a global epidemic because there is no single country in the world where teens do not smoke. Smoking is a single most important cause of chronic morbidity and mortality from chronic respiratory diseases, heart diseases and cancers. It is severely affecting the less developed countries as tobacco industry steadily relocates to poor countries. Tobacco use primarily begins in early adolescence, reportedly before the time of high school graduation. Objective of the study: The study established factors contributing to cigarette smoking among adolescents aged 10-19 years in Otuboi town Council, Kalaki district. Methods and materials: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted employing quantitative data collection techniques. Multi stage random sampling was used to select participants for the study. A structured questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. Data obtained from the 95 respondents who participated in the study was entered using the SPSS version 20 software and analyzed to obtain means for continuous variables, standard deviations, frequencies and odds of associations between cigarette smoking and factors contributing to cigarette smoking among adolescents. Results: The prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adolescents was high and in this study it was found to be 29.5%. The individual factors contributing to cigarette smoking include; having smoking friends (OR) 8.824; gender where males were 6 times more likely to be current smokers than females (OR) 6.795; and parental smoking (OR) 5.294. Socio-economic factors were; offering cigarette gifts to adolescents (OR) 14.931; lower education level (OR) 6.806; sending adolescents to buy cigarettes (OR) 3.103; awareness of cigarette marketing platforms (OR) 2.228; adolescents who had no occupation to earn a living were less likely to smoke cigarettes (OR) 0.285. Conclusion: Based on results from the study, the factors contributing to adolescent smoking are complex and varied, and therefore requires multifaceted interventions. I therefore recommend policy makers to strengthen the enforcement of already adopted policies on smoking. In addition, there is need for health workers to make healthcare facilities adolescent friendly and also involvement of young people in sensitizing their colleagues on health risks of smoking cigarettes.

Keywords: Cigarette smoking, Adolescent, Lung cancer and peer pressure