Consumo de Cigarrillo en Estudiantes de una Ciudad de Colombia: Factores Asociados por Género

Abstract

Objective Establishing gender-related factors associated with cigarette-smoking amongst adolescent students in Santa Marta, Colombia. Method A cross-sectional study was designed to ascertain factors associated with last- month (occasional) cigarette-smoking. Logistic regression was used for independently adjusting factors associated with girls’ and boys’ last-month occasional cigarette-smoking. Results A total of 2,039 girls and 1,536 boys participated in the research. It was observed that 12.0 % of boys and 8.3 % of girls reported occasional cigarette-smoking during the last-month (OR=1.5). Cigarette-smoking in girls was strongly associated with drinking alcohol (OR=20.4), cannabis use (OR=9.3), inhalant use (OR=2.5), being older than fifteen (OR=2.5), having poor or mediocre last month academic achievement (OR=1.9) and attending private schools (OR=1.6). Cigarette-smoking in boys was related to drink- ing alcohol (OR=30.1), cannabis use (OR=13.0), cocaine use (OR=6.4), having poor or mediocre last month academic achievement (OR=2.7), having heterosexual orientation (OR=2.4) and having low socioeconomic status (OR=2.0). Conclusions Cigarette-smoking is differentially associated in boys and girls. Cigarette- smoking in girls was related to inhalant consumption, being older than 15 and attending a private school; in boys, it was associated with cocaine use, having heterosexual orientation and low socioeconomic status.