The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: To provide estimates of current use of tobacco products and selected indicators related to tobacco use, including youth exposure to tobacco related media and access to cigarettes.

Methods: Using self administered questionnaires that were distributed to Form 1 and Form 4 students in 20 randomly selected schools.

Setting: Urban and rural schools, State of Selangor, Malaysia.

Results: A total of 1734 students were surveyed. Of these, 658 were from Form 4 (average age - 16 years) and 1076 were from Form One (13 years old). 26.6% of the Form four students smoked while only 10.8% of the Form Ones ever smoked. The prevalence of smoking was much higher among boys than girls. Among the 280 boys in the Form Four sample, 135 or 48.2 % admitted that they had ever smoked while only 40 out of 378 girls in the Form Four sample (10.6%) smoked. 86.9% of the Form Four sample who smoked were Malays, compared to 8% Chinese and 5.1 % Indians. Initiation was also higher among those whose fathers smoked, had access to cigarettes at home and exposed to tobacco related media.

Conclusions: Results address several demographic factors, social influences, attitudes and behavior related to smoking that may be used in planning preventive strategies to curb the escalation of tobacco use among adolescents and youths in Malaysia.