Anthropologic and medical marks of the Romanian teenagers’ smoking behavior

Abstract

This study’s objectives are to determine the frequency and the effects of smoking behavior on health and to establish the importance of some educational programs of preventing and quitting smoking for teenagers and young people.The cross-sectional study was created in 2011-2012, within the partnership educational projects, No. 357/2011 and 356/2011, with the participation of 515 subjects (228 males, 287 females) from both urban and rural areas, aged 12-20 years. They were medically and anthropo-metrically examined and they were the subjects of questionnaires containing 41 items. The results were statistically processed with SPSS version 13. 37.18% of the participants, of both genres, smoked at least once in a lifetime. 55.17% of the boys and 65.04% of the girls first tried a cigarrete between 11 and 16 years old. 49.70 % of the participants had consistent smokers in their families. 37.63% of the girls and 25.67% of the boys had consistent smoker parents. The cardio-vascular and digestive illnesses were found in 24.59% of the participants’ family members, this cases being closely followed by diabetes and metabolic diseases (22.95%). 31.71% of the participants of both genres considered their health status as satisfactory, the acute infections of upper respiratory tract being the most common. Young people start smoking for various reasons. Informational campaigns are, thus, necessary, in order to popularize the negative effects of smoking on health for both active and passive smokers, which are not guilty in any way.