Smoking Status of the 6th graders of Primary School in Gwangju and Chonnam Province

광주·전남지역 초등학교 6학년 아동의 흡연실태

The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the smoking behaviors and their related factors of the 6th graders from 25 primary schools in Gwangju City and Chonnam province. The total number of subject were 882 children(2% of total 44,088 persons). The instrument consisted of 14 for sociodemographic and smoking-related characteristics and 12 for smoking behaviors-related factors. The survey was conducted with the help of school nurses from August 20th to September 30th, 2000, and the data were analyzed with SAS program. The results were as follows: 12.8% of the 6th graders had once and more smoking experiences and 0.9% of them are current smoking. The number of children who have smoking experience were significantly more in the male group, unsatisfying group in school life, lower in school performance(p< .001); and of lower level of father's education(p< .05), of children of working mothers, and of relatively unhappy family atmosphere(p< .01). There were number of children who have smoking experience were significant in the group of having smoking friends, of frequent buying cigarette, and of having smoking siblings(p< .001) and relatives(p< .05). It is concluded that smoking experience of primary school children in Gwangju and Chonnam area were relatively lower than that of other provinces and foreign countries but starting age of smoking was tended to be lower gradually.