Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #106230

Wei Sun, MS¹, Valentina A. Andreeva-Cook, MS¹, Jennifer Unger, PhD¹, Chih-Ping Chou, PhD¹, Paula H. Palmer, PhD¹, David V. Conti, PhD², Ping Sun, PhD¹, and C. Anderson Johnson, PhD¹. (1) Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, University of Southern California, 1000 S. Fremont Avenue, Unit 8, Alhambra, CA 91803, 626-457-6620, wei.sun@usc.edu, (2) Department: Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, 1540 Alcazar Str. CHP 222, Los Angeles, CA 90089

Objectives. This study examined the differences in smoking progression among middle school and high school students in China. Methods. China Seven Cities Study (CSCS) is a longitudinal cohort study. This study sample consists of subjects with both baseline and one-year follow-up measures conducted between October 2002 and December 2003. There were 4842 students from 62 middle schools and 5806 students from 83 high schools. Multilevel random-coefficients modeling techniques were applied to estimate the difference in smoking progression among students at the two school levels. Results. The analyses revealed somewhat different patterns of smoking progression for males and females, and for middle school and high school students. Among male students who were never smokers or experimental smokers, those in middle school were particularly susceptible to transitioning more rapidly through the smoking behavior stages than were those in high school (transition from never smokers - OR: 1.317, 95% CI: 1.018 - 1.703; transition from experimental smokers - OR: 1.496, 95% CI: 1.006 - 2.223). For females, the results revealed that middle school students were more likely to progress from experimental smokers to intermittent smokers than high school students (OR: 2.758, 95% CI: 1.286 – 5.918). Conclusion. This longitudinal study is the first one to explore differences in smoking progression among adolescents in China. The results revealed that various age groups transition differently through the smoking progression stages. These findings could be applied in developing specific smoking prevention curricula for each age group, which could reduce tobacco-related morbidity and mortality in China.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• understand the patterns of smoking progression for males and females are different.
• understand the patterns of smoking progression for middle school and high school students are different.

Keywords: Adolescents, Smoking

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.