Study on Smoking-related Health Knowledge and Attitudes and their Association with Smoking Behaviors among High School Students in Shanghai / 中国慢性病预防与控制

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore smoking -related health knowledge and attitudes and their association with smoking behaviors among high school students in Shanghai. Methods With stratified random sampling, 9239 students aged 11~20 years old from 57 high schools (19 from each of primary, secondary and professional schools) distributing in whole city were investigated with questionnaire which self -completed anonymously by the students. The contents of the questionnaire included smoking behavior, relation between smoking and health, and attitude to tobacco control policies. Results Of those 9 239 students, there were 19.5% (male 28.2%, female 10.2%) of them who ever smoked; the total mean score of their knowledge and attitude to smoking and health-related issues was 54.42?7.274 (the maximum was 65), and the ratio of total mean score and the maximum score was 0.8065, the highest ratio (0.9767) was found in awareness that smoking was harmful and the lowest (0.3825) in awareness of tobacco control rules and regulations. The scores of each smoking and health -related knowledge and attitude were decreased with increase of cigarette number smoked by students. Compared with other high schools, the lowest scores of each indexes and the highest rate of smoking were found in vocational schools. Conclusion It was found that the smoking behavior was related with their knowledge and attitude that smoking was harmful among high school students in Shanghai. And the tobacco control and intervention should be mainly developed in students of vocational schools.