Household secondhand smoke exposure of elementary schoolchildren in Southern Taiwan and factors associated with their confidence in avoiding exposure: a cross-sectional study

Table 2 Descriptive information on selected individual characteristics of the third through sixth graders at the 52 elementary schools in southern Taiwan, 2008 and 2009

Parameter	Wave 1						Wave 2
	Male		Female		X ² , t	P	Male		Female		X ² , t	P
Children smoking status (n, %)
Never smokers	976	82.7	997	90.6	34.10	< 0.001	889	86.0	996	91.8	18.57	< 0.001
Former smokers	150	12.7	86	7.8			111	10.7	71	6.5
Current smokers	54	4.6	17	1.6			34	3.3	18	1.7
Family smokes (n, %)
No	395	33.3	352	31.8	2.15	0.543	383	36.4	378	34.2	4.98	0.173
Smoking in front of me
Never	163	13.8	150	13.6			120	11.4	136	12.3
Sometimes	346	29.2	354	32.0			273	26.0	328	29.7
Always	281	23.7	251	22.7			276	26.2	264	23.9
Household SHS exposure (n, %)
None	466	40.8	423	39.3	1.32	0.517	429	42.3	454	42.2	0.25	0.883
1-3 days/week	254	22.3	261	24.3			221	21.8	244	22.7
4+ days/week	421	36.9	391	36.4			363	35.8	378	35.1
Attitude toward smoking (mean ± SD)	17.06 ± 4.65		16.02 ± 3.92		5.75	< 0.001	16.59 ± 4.65		15.93 ± 4.24		3.42	< 0.001
Knowledge (mean ± SD)	7.42 ± 2.33		7.67 ± 2.02		-2.73	0.006	7.55 ± 2.36		7.71 ± 2.11		-1.65	0.010

ISSN: 1471-2458