Prevalence and Characteristics of Smoking Among School-Going Adolescents in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Background: According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2014), noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease account for a majority of premature deaths in the Malaysian population. Tobacco smoking remains a leading risk factor for these diseases. Although there have been previous population-level studies which have highlighted adolescent smokers in Malaysia, little has been done to specifically ascertain smoking prevalence within a school-going population using objective measurement tools. Aim: This study aimed to identify the prevalence of school-going adolescent smokers in Kuala Lumpur via an objective measurement - expired carbon monoxide (CO) in parts per million (ppm). Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study that involved 2,679 high school-going adolescents aged between 13 to 18 years old in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The level of exhaled CO (Smokerlyzer test) of all the participants was measured. Participants were also administered with a s...