The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: this report describes the knowledge, attitudes and behavior of young generation regarding tobacco use, their exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), pro-tobacco as well as anti-tobacco advertisement.

Methods: We conducted a multistage, school-based, two-cluster survey (n=2,155, age=13-15 years) in government and private schools using a standardized questionnaire based on the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS).

Results: Prevalence of ever smoking was 42.7% for boys and 33.8% for girls. 38.4% of never smokers and 57.7% of current smokers exposed to smoke from others in their home and more than 6 in 10 never smokers and almost 9 in 10 of current smokers exposed to smoke from others in public places. More than half of non-smokers saw a tobacco advertisement, and 2.9% of them were offered free cigarettes from a tobacco company representative. Moreover, over 7 in 10 young generation buy their cigarettes from stores, and 96% of them were not refused to buy cigarettes because of their age.