Trends in the ease of cigarette purchase among Korean adolescents: evidence from the Korea youth risk behavior web-based survey 2005–2016

Table 1 Basic characteristics of the study participants in the KYRBWS 2005–2016 (N = 95,491)

	Ease of cigarette purchase
	Yes (n = 76,860)		No (n = 18,631)		p-value^a
	N	%	N	%
Sex
Adolescent males	54,496	80.8	13,205	19.2	0.691
Adolescent females	22,364	80.7	5426	19.3	0.691
Grade
Middle 1	2967	51.3	2889	48.7	< 0.001
Middle 2	6338	65.1	3420	34.9
Middle 3	10,372	74.6	3534	25.4
High 1	16,758	83.3	3409	16.7
High 2	20,040	86.6	3070	13.4
High 3	20,385	90.0	2309	10.0
Area
Rural	10,304	80.3	2567	19.7
Urban (small and medium sized cities)	30,841	80.2	7767	19.8	0.001
Urban (metropolitan cities)	35,715	81.4	8297	18.6
Self-reported socioeconomic status
High	6351	79.7	1720	20.3
Middle	61,982	80.6	15,143	19.4	< 0.001
Low	8527	83.2	1768	16.8
Problematic drinking in the past year
No	25,331	68.3	12,135	31.7	< 0.001
Yes	51,529	89.0	6496	11.0	< 0.001
Average amount of cigarette smoking per day
< 1 cigarette	4982	73.5	1835	26.5	< 0.001
1 cigarette	3393	76.4	1080	23.6
2–5 cigarettes	18,417	85.2	3109	14.8
6–9 cigarettes	16,077	91.3	1530	8.7
10–19 cigarettes	11,958	94.1	794	5.9
≥ 20 cigarettes	5524	94.4	336	5.6
Quit attempts in the past year
No	8258	88.1	1184	11.9	0.026
Yes	22,815	87.1	3492	12.9	0.026
Current smokers among family members
No	3856	74.2	1426	25.8	< 0.001
Yes	7791	76.9	2440	23.1	< 0.001
Current smokers among close friends
No	654	33.3	1371	66.7	< 0.001
Yes	11,591	81.8	2652	18.2	< 0.001
Pocket money (won/week)^b
< 30,000	32,247	74.8	10,902	25.2	< 0.001
30,000-59,999	18,589	83.8	3671	16.2
60,000-89,999	4921	87.5	754	12.5
90,000-119,999	3264	88.0	475	12.0
120,000-149,999	903	89.6	100	10.4
≥ 150,000	5187	87.5	740	12.5

KYRBWS: Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey
^aP-values were calculated by Chi-squared test
^bCurrency exchange for U.S. dollar: 30,000 won = $26.88; 60,000 won = $53.75; 90,000 won = $80.63; 120,000 won = $107.51; 150,000 won = $134.38

ISSN: 1471-2458