The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: This study assessed the smoking pattern among Thailand's school children. It also examined factors that may attribute to their smoking behavior. Over thirteen thousand students who enrolled in secondary and vocational schools in the four regions of Thailand and Bangkok, with the age range between 12 and 19, voluntarily participated in the study.

Methods: Two stages cluster sampling method was employed to obtain representative sample. The first sampling stage included simple random selections of Secondary and Vocational schools in each province proportionally to enrollment size. For the second stage, classrooms were randomly selected and all the students were invited to participate.

Results: The last survey conducted in 1999 by the National Statistics Office reported a rate of 6.3% among individual ages 15 to 19 years. In comparison to the same age group in this study, the prevalence rate was more than two times higher at a rate of 15.6%. The prevalence of smoking was still much higher in male students, however, female students showed a much larger increase, especially, in Bangkok. In Bangkok, the prevalence of male smokers (5.9%) was 3 times higher than female smokers (2.1%) while other regions, it was approximately 26 times higher. More alarmingly, one third of the respondents have added narcotic substances to their cigarettes. It becomes more apparent that tobacco use among the Thai youth population remains The high prevalence together with a more rapid increase among female students in Bangkok makes tobacco use a significant public health concern.