Receptivity to Pro-Tobacco Media and Cigarette Smoking among Vocational High School Students in China

The purpose of this study was to assess the association of receptivity to pro-smoking media and cigarette smoking among adolescents in China and updating data on smoking prevalence and typology. Data were collected from a random sample (n=553) of vocational high school students in Wuhan, China, with a response rate of 99%. Media receptivity was assessed using the Adolescent Tobacco Media Receptivity Scale (ATMRS, score range of 1-4). Smoking typology including habitual smokers and chippers, and smoking prevalence in one day, two days, one week, one month, two months, six months and one year were assessed. Reported smoking was verified using exhaled carbon monoxide. It was found that the initiation rates of smoking were 71.3% for boys and 27.4% for girls with 45% of the boys and 6.3% of the girls smoking in the past 30 days. Of the smokers, 40.7% were self-stoppers and 29.6% were chippers. The mean ATMRS score was 2.45 (SD=0.83) with boys scoring higher than girls. ATMRS scores were significantly associated with initiation and after-initiation smoking assessed at various durations. Findings of this study imply that Chinese youth are highly receptive to pro-tobacco media. Social marketing against tobacco advertising should be adopted as an important strategy for tobacco control in China. In addition, the period of 30-day appears to be an optimal choice to assess cigarette smoking as conventionally used in past research.