The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #62560

Takashi Ohida¹, Tomofumi Sone², Yoneatsu Osaki³, Kenshu Suzuki¹, and Takeo Miyake¹. (1) Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nihon University, 30-1 Ohyaguchikami-machi, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 1738610, Japan, 81-3-3972-8111, tohida@niph.go.jp, (2) Department of Public Health Policy, National Institute of Public Health, Japan, 2-3-6 Minami, Wako City, Saitama, 351-0197, Japan, (3) Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 86 Nishi-machi, Yonago, 6838503, Japan

We conducted a nationwide survey to examine the relationship between cigarette smoking and sleep among Japanese adolescents. The survey design was a cross-sectional sampling survey. Targets of the survey were junior and senior high school students throughout Japan. Sample schools were selected by stratified cluster sampling. Self-administered anonymous questionnaires were sent to sample schools for all students to fill out. 75 % of the senior and junior high schools were responded to this survey request. The number of students participated was 107,907 and 106,297 responses were subjected to the analysis. 5.9% of boys and 4.2% of girls in the seventh grade were classified as current smokers (smokers who had smoked at least one day during the previous month), compared with 55.7% of boys and 36.7% of girls in the twelfth grade. Less than 1% of seventh graders of either sex were classified as daily smokers, but this figure increased markedly by the twelfth grade to reach 25.9% of boys and 8.2% of girls. This study indicated that 30.6% of the respondents sleep less than 6 hours nightly. 38.5% reported getting insufficient sleep. We found a significant association between cigarette smoking and sleep problems, that is, 45% of the daily smokers, 39% of the occasional and 29% of non-smokers had short sleeping hours. Other sleep problems were also reported more frequently from smokers than from non-smokers.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the presentation, the audience will be able to:
• Identify individual and environmental factors related to the relationship between cigarette smoking and sleep problems among Japanese adolescents.
• Develop proper health policies that keep Japanese adolescents from health problems caused by tobacco.

Keywords: Smoking, Adolescent Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.