Publication: Smoking behavior among adolescents in Thailand and Malaysia
2
0
Issued Date
2011
Resource Type
File Type
application/pdf
ISSN
1251562
Other identifier(s)
2-s2.0-79953759992
Rights Holder(s)
Scopus
Bibliographic Citation
Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health. Vol 42, No.1 (2011), p.218-224
Suggested Citation
Sirirassamee T., Sirirassamee B., Borland R., Omar M., Driezen P. Smoking behavior among adolescents in Thailand and Malaysia. Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health. Vol 42, No.1 (2011), p.218-224. Retrieved from: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14740/7404
Abstract
The objective of this study was to examine the smoking behavior among adolescents in Thailand and Malaysia. Population-based, national surveys were conducted among 1,704 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 from Thailand (n = 927) and Malaysia (n = 777). Respondents were selected using multistage cluster sampling. Respondents were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires. Approximately 5% of Thai and Malaysian adolescents were current smokers, while an additional 8.6% of Thai and 8.1% of Malaysian adolescents reported being beginning smokers. On average, Thai smokers reported first smoking a whole cigarette at 14.6 years old (SD = 1.9), while Malaysian smokers at age 13.9 years (SD = 2.2). More than half of Thai smokers (60.4%) reported they bought cigarettes themselves and 29.9% got cigarettes from friends. In Malaysia, most smokers (68.3%) reported they bought cigarettes themselves, only 20.7% got cigarettes from friends. Seventy-six percent of Thai adolescent smokers smoked factory-made brands as their usual brand compared to 27.7% of Malaysian adolescent smokers. Eight percent of Thai adolescents and 10% of Malaysian adolescents reported smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. Approximately half of Thais and more than 40% of Malaysian smokers reported they tried to quit smoking within the past month. The smoking prevalence of Thai adolescents is close to that of Malaysian adolescents. Factory-made cigarette consumption is an important problem in Thai adolescents and needs to be targeted.