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All →Smoking still a core challenge for child and adolescent health reveals WHO report
The latest Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study focusing on adolescent health and well-being has revealed that levels of cigarette-smoking are worryingly high, particularly among 15-year-olds. In this age group, 15% of adolescents report having smoked a cigarette at least once in the past 30 days and nearly 1 in 3 mentioned having tried smoking (27% of girls and 29% of boys).
Findings highlight worrying trends
While overall, some small but encouraging reductions in adolescent cigarette smoking behaviours have been observed since 2014, the report reveals some alarming trends:
- Both lifetime and current cigarette smoking are increasing steeply with age. At age 11, 5% of boys and 2% of girls have ever smoked, but this rises to 29% of boys and 27% of girls at age 15. Similarly, levels of current cigarette smoking increase from 2% of boys and 1% of girls at age 11, to 15% of both boys and girls at age 15.
- Overall rates of cigarette smoking are similar in boys and girls across all ages.
Youth smoking: initiation and health effects
Adolescence is a critical period when the risks associated with substance use are particularly high. Smoking behaviour is typically established during adolescence; most smokers had their first cigarette or were already addicted, by the time they turned 18. Compared with adults, young people require fewer cigarettes and less time to establish a nicotine addiction.
Exposure to nicotine of children and adolescents can have long-lasting, damaging effects on brain development. Young people who smoke are also at risk of asthma and impaired lung function and growth, and their physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance is also reduced because of smoking.
A call to action
There is some evidence that the combination of interventions to raise public awareness and stricter tobacco-control policies implemented in many countries and regions is starting to have an effect on adolescent smoking. The data show, however, that cigarette smoking among youth is still too common and much more needs to be done.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) asserts the importance of strategies to reduce both tobacco demand and supply, and provides a framework for tobacco control measures to be implemented at the national, regional and international levels. There is good evidence that these measures protect children from smoking initiation and other tobacco-related harm. By investing in the health of younger generations, Member States should aim to fully implement all measures that fall within the scope of the WHO FCTC.