Prevalence of Smoking and Level of Dependence among Eleven &Twelve Students

Abstract

Worldwide, tobacco consumption is not just one of the leading causeof preventabledeaths, its global economic burden is estimated to be around 1.4 trillion US Dollarstogether with lost productivity. Around 22% of the 15 years and old personsworldwide are reported to be current smokers. In Nepal it is reported to be around37.1%. However, the local data from Itahari is lacking. This study “prevalence of smoking and level of dependency among eleven & twelvestudents” was carried out. To determine how many students from the selected fiveschools (Janta secondary school,Sharda secondary school, Rastriya secondary school,Janasahayog secondary school and Mahendra secondary school) ever smoked in theirlife times and how many of them were currently smoking. Among those who smoked,it was also an objective to determine theage of the students at which they first eversmoked in their lifetimes. As it is known that different factors may influence theadolescents for smoking, factors such as parental smoking, smoking by siblings orteacher or peers were looked into. The topic was conceptualized as many school students were observed to be smokingand in many cases it is said that smoking continues in adulthood. The topic wasdiscussed with the guide and finalized. Protocol was made and the guide approved it.Permission was taken from the Janta Multiple Campus. A list of public schools wasobtained from the District Education Office and five schools were randomly selectedwith the lottery method. The concerned schools were contacted, explained about thestudy ad permission taken from the authorities of the school. Classes in the schoolswere also randomly selected. Verbal consent was taken from the student participantsafter explaining about the study in the classroom. Confidentiality of the students weremaintained. Data were recorded in Performa, transferred to Microsoft Excel Sheet,and presented in percentage, standard deviation, range and in tabular form.All the collected data were transferred into tabular form and interpreted. There was atotal of 200 participants from all selected schools, 100 students from class 11 and 100students from class 12. There were 81 students studying Faculty of Education, 80students studying Faculty of Management, 20 students studying Faculty of Science,and 19 students studying Faculty of Humanities. Among 200 students, 128 students(64%) were female and 72 students (36%) were male. Participant students’ age ranged from 16 to 19 years with 70% of the them being 16 and 17 years of age.Among respondent students 29.5% were Kshetri, 28.5% were Janajati, 23.5% wereBramhan, 18% were Madhesi and less than one percent were others. Sixty percent ofstudents belonged to nuclear family and 40% belonged to joint family. Thirty threepercent students lived with only one parent, 19% lived withboth parents, 9.5% livedwith relatives, 7.5% lived alone, and 4.5% lived with friends. There were 53.5% ofthe students from rural background and 46.5% from urban background. Thirty eightpercent of the students’ fathers were involved in farming, 20% in others, 13.5% ingovernment job (non-force), 13% in private sector, 11% in army or police, and 4.5%were unemployed. There were 46.5% of students’ mothers unemployed, 27% wereinvolved in farming, 16% in others, 6% in private sector, 4.5% in government job,and none of the mothers were working in army or police. Nearly half of the studentsperceived that their parents raised them with optimal discipline, 44% perceived thattheir parents raised them with strict discipline, and 6.5% perceived that their parentsdid no ensure discipline. Sixty five percent of the total students who participated inthe study reported no fights in the family and 35% reported fights in the family.Among all respondent students, 81% had faith in religion and 19% did not. Among200 students of 11 th and 12 th classes, 33 students (16.5%) tried smoking inlifetime and majority (83.5%) did not. Among 200 students, 29 students (14.5%)smoked cigarettes in last month. Around 86% did not smoke in last one month.Those students who ever-tried smoking, around 79% of them tried between 15 to 17years of age. Twelve percent started smoking at the age of 14 years. Three percentstarted smoking at the ages of 10, 13, and 18 years each. Nearly 30 % of the 200 students had someone in the family who smoked cigarettes.Twenty two percent of the students’ fathers, eight percent of the students’ mothers,ten percent of the students’ uncles, three percent of the students’ aunts, seven percentof the students’ elder brothers, around five percentof the students’ cousins smokedcigarette. Less than one percent of the students’ sisters smoked cigarette. Among 200students, only 25% of the any other relatives other than parents smoked cigarette inthe family. Nearly 24% of the close friends of thestudents smoked cigarette and 76%of students had between two to four friends who smoked. Sixteen percent of theparticipant students were offered cigarette by a close friend.