1. PREDICTORS OF SMOKING UPTAKE AMONG THAI YOUTH : Finding of International Tobacco Control Policy Youth Surveys Tawima Sirirassamee, Buppha Sirirassamee, Ron Borland, Geoffrey T. Fong, David Hammond Presentation at the Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health, 6-9 October 2010 Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Sydney, Australia

2. Background  Approximately 70,000 of adolescents in developing country initiating to smoke every day.  About 40 percents of experimental smoker developed to be regular smoker. ( Vathesatogkit, 2009)  Knowing the determinants of uptake smoking should help to prevent them from tobacco consumption.  The present study is the first prospective cohort study of tobacco uptake in Thai adolescents and based on large population, national representative samples.

3. Objective  To determine the factors that are prospectively associated with adoption of smoking in a cohort of Thai youth.

4. Method : Stratified Multistage Sampling Region Province District P 1 P 2 D2D3 SD 1SD 2 V 1 V 2V 3 D1 Sub-district Village North Central SouthNortheastBangkok Wave 1 (2005) Wave 2 (2006) 1,000 adolescents Recontact W2 712 adolescents (71.2%)

5. N EW S Songkla Province in each region Nakornsethammarat Samutsakorn Nakornphatom Nakornratchasema Nongkay Phare Chiang Mai Bangkok North North East Bangkok Central South

6.  Tools :  Self-administered questionnaire  Data analysis :  Descriptive statistics  Chi-Square test  Logistic regression analysis. Material & Method

7. Result

8. Prevalence of smoking 18.2 27.8 1.7 2.3 9.9 15.0

9. Changing in smoking status 90.1 91.4 9.9 8.6 72.9 27.1 Percent of smoking status in wave 1 Percent of smoking status in wave 2

10. Predictors of youth uptake smoking VariableOdd ratio Sex : Female (reference = male)0.11**** No of close friends smoker1.24** How often drank alcohol in last month Never 1-5 times More than 5 times *** 1.00 2.85*** 2.52*** **** Significant at.001 level; ***- Significant at.01 level; **- Significant at.05 level; * -Significant at 0.10 level

11. VariableOdd ratio Frequency of sadness in last two weeks Not at all Once in a while Many times Sad all the time *** 1.00 2.50*** 0.91 8.23*** Religious beliefs affect behavior Rarely Sometimes All the time * 1.00 0.55 0.24** **** Significant at.001 level; ***- Significant at.01 level; **- Significant at.05 level; * -Significant at 0.10 level Predictors of youth uptake smoking

12. Conclusions  Peer influences and alcohol consumption are important predictors of initiating smoking in Thai adolescents.  Many of these factors are similar to determinants of uptake in other countries, suggesting that effective prevention programs from the west may be able to be adapted for successfully use in Thailand.

13. ITC Project Research Support Core support provided by the U.S. National Cancer Institute to the Roswell Park TTURC (P01 CA138389) Additional major funding provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research ITC Project Research Organizations