Age at smoking initiation and self-rated health among second grade high school boys and girls in Scania, Sweden, a cross-sectional study

Table 1 Characteristics (%) of high school boys by smoking status and age at smoking initiation

	Boys n = 3245
		Early initiators^a		Later initiators^b
	Never smokers	Former smokers	Current smokers	Former smokers	Current smokers
	n = 1467 (45 %)	n = 136 (4 %)	n = 640 (20 %)	n = 166 (5 %)	n = 836 (26 %)
Sociodemographic factors (%)
Parental country of birth
Both parents born in Sweden	70	75	67	63	70
One parent born in Sweden	11	10	14	17	12
Both parents born abroad	19	15	19	19	18
Parental employment
Both parents working	82	79	75	78	83
One parent working	15	17	17	19	15
No parent working	3	5	8	3	3
Health related lifestyle factors (%)
Intense alcohol consumption^c	17	64	73	55	67
Narcotic drugs last 12 months^d	3	32	42	24	29
Psychosocial factors (%)
Not easy to talk to parents if problems	32	42	42	47	41
Not easy to talk to friends if problems	28	26	24	20	22
Health related symptoms (%)
Weight^e
Underweight	8	3	5	8	5
Normal weight	76	66	71	68	73
Overweight	14	24	18	15	17
Obesity	2	7	7	9	6
Functional disability^f	21	39	39	41	28
Poor self-rated health	11	23	20	13	15

Characteristic (%) of second grade high school boys by smoking status and age at smoking initiation, the Scania public health survey among children and adolescents, 2012
^aEarly initiators-initiating smoking <14 years of age
^bLater initiators-initiating smoking ≥ 14 years of age
^cIntense alcohol consumption-consumtion of alcohol equivalent to 25 cl hard liquor at least once a month during the last 12 months
^dNarcotic drugs-used at least one narcotic drugs during last 12 months
^eWeight; underweight-Body Mass Index (BMI) <18.5, normal weight-BMI 18.5–24.9, overweight-BMI 25–29.99, obesity-BMI ≥30
^fFunctional disability-reporting at least one disability-hearing disability, visual disability that cannot be corrected with glasses or lenses, physical disabilities, reading-writing-dyslexia-disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Attention Deficit Disorder or other disability

ISSN: 1471-2458