Cigarette Smoking Behavior and Associated Psychosocial Determinants Among School Going Adolescents in Panchkula, India

Introduction: Seventy percent of premature deaths in adults occur owing to harmful behavioral patterns such as smoking that emerged in adolescence. The rising trend of adolescent addiction to cigarettes is a cause for worry. Aim: To assess the prevalence of cigarette smoking in adolescents and to investigate the different psychosocial determinants which influence them to either smoke or not to smoke. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in higher secondary schools of Panchkula, India. A self-structured questionnaire was used to assess the smoking behavior and other associated factors among 584 school going adolescents in the age group of 14–19 years. The proportion, the chi-square test, and bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were applied. All analyses were done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 17.0 software. Results: The prevalence of ever smokers was 13.5% including 10.5% males and 3% females. Male students were more likely to ever smoke than females [odds ratio (OR) = 4.01; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.84–6.14]. Subjects in the late adolescence were more likely to ever smoke than the middle adolescents (OR = 2.18; 95% CI: 1.18–3.67). Students in grade 12 had more than four times the odds of ever smoke than those in grade 10 (OR = 3.83; 95% CI: 2.34–5.67). Cigarette smoking was six times more likely if students had seen their sibling ever smoke (OR = 6.3; 95% CI: 3.16–9.69), three times more likely if a best friend smoked (OR = 3.18; 95% CI: 1.82–5.67), and two times more likely in students who had seen their father smoking (OR = 2.18; 95% CI: 1.67–2.84). Conclusion: A strong association exists between cigarette smoking behavior and different psychosocial factors, highlighting the need for efforts from parents, siblings, teachers, and peer groups to discourage smoking behavior.