Abstract
Introduction: Despite a constant focus on prevention of health-risk behaviors among adolescents and young people in many countries and regions, teenagers still show interest and engage in smoking and alcohol consumption.
Objective: To study the prevalence and risk factors of early initiation of alcohol consumption and smoking in schoolaged children in order to substantiate and develop appropriate preventive measures to be taken in secondary schools of Yekaterinburg.
Materials and methods: In 2022, we conducted an anonymous questionnaire-based cross-sectional study of 742 secondary school students in grades 8 to 11 (aged 14–18 years) living in Yekaterinburg. We assessed associations between the use of psychoactive substances, behavioral risk factors, such as daily routine, physical activity, attitude to smoking and alcohol consumption, health literacy, disease prevention habits, and psychosocial factors, and health. The data were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-squared test and the Student’s t-test; odd ratios (OR) were calculated with the 95 % confidence interval.
Results: The proportion of cigarette smokers and alcohol consumers among school-aged adolescents amounted to 21.3 % and 43.4 %. Among the risk factors contributing to early initiation of smoking and alcohol consumption, the most significant were bad relationships with adults (parents and teachers), lack of parental support, poor awareness of adverse effects of alcohol consumption and smoking, loyal attitude of parents and schoolchildren to the problem. The use of psychoactive substances correlated statistically with poor well-being of the school-aged youth.
Conclusion: We observed lower prevalence rates of smoking and alcohol consumption in the adolescents compared with the 2000s. This problem, however, still requires preventive interventions. The established risk factors should be taken into account when developing school-based prevention programs.
Publisher
Federal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology
Subject
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,Health Informatics,Medicine (miscellaneous),Epidemiology
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