Presentation at the 11th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine At Washington, DC, USA. 5 August 2010 PATTERN OF CIGARETTE SMOKING AMONG THAI ADOLESCENTS : A LONGITUDINAL STUDY FROM INTERNATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL POLICY. Tawima Sirirassamee Buppha Sirirassamee Ron Borland Geoffrey T. Fong

Tobacco consumption is one of the major problem in Thailand. In each year, 42,000 of Thai adult die from tobacco related diseases. Thai government spent more than 46,000 million baht/year on tobacco related diseases. Tobacco control policies have been implemented and lead to declining in adult smoking prevalence. However, smoking prevalence among adolescents is gradually increased. Background

Objective To determine the pattern of cigarette smoking among Thai adolescents over a period of three years.

Materials and Methods  Sample : Adolescents years old Wave 1 January to March ,000 adolescents Wave 2 July to September 2006 January to March adolescents 1,096 adolescents Wave 3

Sampling Design : Multistage Sampling Regio n Centra l Sout h North east Bangk ok Province Distr ict P 1 P 2 D2D3 SD 1SD 2 V 1 V 2V 3 D1 Sub- district Village D1 – D13 SD1 – SD13 ED1 – ED13 North

N EW S Songkla Nakornsethammarat Samutsakorn Nakornphatom Nakornratchasema Nongkay Phare Chiang Mai Bangkok North North East Bangkok Central South Regions

Materials and methods  Self administered questionnaire  Demographic data  Smoking behaviors  Type of cigarette  Amount of cigarette use per day  Quit attempt  Data analysis : Descriptive statistics

Results

Prevalence of smoking by gender

Prevalence of smoking by regions

Type of Cigarettes

Total amount of tobacco use per day

Sources of cigarettes

Quit attempt

Conclusion  Cigarette smoking among Thai youth remains an important problem and needs further tobacco control interventions to prevent and control Thai youth from tobacco consumption.  Factory made cigarette is commonly used by Thai adolescents and need to be targeted.

International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project http: / / http: / / ITC Project Research Support Core support provided by the U.S. National Cancer Institute to the Roswell Park TTURC (P50 CA111236) Additional major funding provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research