Smoking behavior among male students in secondary schools in khartoum locality- Sudan

Objective: To investigate smoking related behaviour and to assess the smoking prevalence among male students in secondary schools in Khartoum locality, Sudan Design: Cross-sectional study Setting: The study was carried out at secondary schools in Khartoum, Sudan Subjects: The study included male students randomly selected from 12 secondary schools from four administrative units of Khartoum. Intervention: The data were collected using a pre-tested, structured questionnaire to collect information. Main outcome measures: Determining overall smoking prevalence and the factors which were associated with smoking among students Results: The study showed that the overall smoking prevalence was 12.9% among the students, majority of them (75.5%) were mainly cigarette smokers. Of students who smoke, 54.5% started smoking during primary school. The highest percentage (42.9%) claimed smoking was due to smoker friends, while about a third of smoker students reported that they started smoking because they have a smoker in their family. However, a majority of them smoke in public places (63.3%). Forty eight (98%) of the smoking students wanted to quit smoking. The reason they were ready to quit smoking was to save their health (64.6%). This study demonstrated that socio-demographic characteristics like age, class level, family size, monthly income and having a smoker among family members was significantly associated with smoking among school students (p < 0.5), whereas, no significant associations were observed between fathers and mothers educational level. Conclusion: To reduce the prevalence of smoking, intensive interventional measures should target parents, teachers and students and should start as early as in primary schools.