Health Survey Shows Fewer Youths Picking Up Smoking
SINGAPORE: Fewer youths are taking up smoking with the proportion of those who tried a puff or two going down 7 percentage points in six years, according to a survey which polled 3,844 Secondary 1 to 4 students.
The Students’ Health Survey, conducted by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) between April and August last year, found that the proportion of youths who tried smoking had declined from 26 percent in 2000 to 19 percent last year.
V Prema, Deputy Director of Youth Health Programme Development 2, HPB, said: “There are a lot of education factors that have been going on in smoke-free messaging and the kind of programmes that we have been doing in schools. So I think the message has, to a large extent, gone down to the students that it’s not a desirable habit to pick up.”
Among the smokers, it was found that the median age at which they picked up smoking was 12 years old.
The survey also showed that youths were more likely to take up smoking if their friends, parents or siblings did so.
In fact, among those who smoked, 95 percent had close friends with the habit and almost six in ten youths had at least one parent who smoked as well.
The survey also revealed several misconceptions that youth smokers held about smoking.
For example, seven in ten thought that they could stop smoking anytime they wanted, compared to 65 percent among non-smokers.
HPB said the survey information is important as it can help improve its campaigns to tackle the smoking problem better.
As for sexual issues, the survey found that 4 percent of upper secondary students said they had engaged in sexual intercourse. Among the reasons given were “It just happened” and “I was curious”.
Dr Chan Mei Fen, Deputy Director, Research and Evaluation, HPB, said: “The prevalence of sexual intercourse at 4 percent is something that we will be monitoring because we know that sexual activities in children are the result of curiosity and they are experimenting often.
“We have to look at strategies and programmes which will address this so that students will be aware of when they should be a bit more cautious.”
HPB added that it was heartened that the survey showed that youths who did not engage in sex were mindful of the risks.
The top reasons for abstaining from sex were “fear of sexually transmitted diseases” and “fear of unwanted pregnancies”. Six in ten youths also said they did not want to engage in any sexual activities before marriage.
Other issues explored in the survey were dietary practices of youths, their physical activities and mental wellness.
It is the first time such a survey, involving 51 schools, was carried out.
The Health Promotion Board said the survey findings provide useful information on the state of youth health in Singapore. To continue monitoring health trends among youths, HPB would conduct such surveys every two to three years.
There are also plans to conduct similar surveys among other age groups, including tertiary students in the next two years.
- CNA/so
Channel News Asia