Boys and girls smoking within the Danish elementary school classes: a group-level analysis.

Full Abstract

AIMS:
To quantify the correlation between male and female smoking prevalence in elementary school classes by group-level analysis.

METHODS:
This study was the Danish contribution to the cross-national study Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) 1998. Ninety school classes at grade nine (1,515 students) from a random sample of schools in Denmark took part. The proportion of male and female "at all" smokers and daily smokers in the school class was calculated.

RESULTS:
The mean "at all" smoking proportion in the school classes is 39% for girls and 32% for boys. The proportion of male and female smokers within school classes does not correlate. There is high variation in male and female smoking behaviour between school classes.

CONCLUSIONS:
The influence of social classroom environment on the processes causing smoking behaviour may be different for boys and girls. This paper illustrates that group-level analysis provides valuable new knowledge.

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Author information

Author/s: Rasmussen, Mette (M); Damsgaard, Mogens T (MT); Due, Pernille (P); Holstein, Bjørn E (BE);

Affiliation: Institute of Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. M.Rasmussen(-atsign-)socmed.ku.dk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Scandinavian journal of public health (Scand J Public Health), published in Norway. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-; vol 30 (issue 1) : pp 62-9

Dates: Created 2002/04/03; Completed 2002/09/06; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 11928836, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Child
Child Behavior - psychology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Denmark - epidemiology
Female
Health Behavior

Humans
Male
Risk-Taking
Schools
Smoking - epidemiology
Students - psychology; statistics & numerical data

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