Tobacco use by youth

A__________________________
1 Tobacco use is one of the chief preventable causes of death in the world. 2 Recent trends
indicate an earlier age of initiation and rising smoking prevalence rates among children and
adolescents. If these patterns continue, tobacco use will result in the deaths of 250 million of the
people who are children and adolescents today. Yet, information on tobacco use among young
people is not available for most developing countries. 3 To help fill in this data gap, the World
Health Organisation (WHO) and the Office on Smoking and Health in the USA developed the
Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS). 4 The GYTS project was developed to track tobacco
use among youth in countries across the world, using a common methodology and core
questionnaire. The GYTS is school based and employs a two-stage sample design to produce
representative data on smoking among students aged 1315 years. 5 This report describes the
design and development of the GYTS and the early results of the GYTS which were obtained
from six countries.
B__________________________
The GYTS was created with the following design.

The surveys are school-based because they can be done in a short time frame, and require
only limited field staff.
The surveys focus on school grades associated with students aged 1315 years.
The questionnaire has a core component which would provide essential data for
comparisons between countries and regions, while allowing optional questions on
specific issues according to the needs of individual countries. The core questionnaire
contained 57 multiple-choice questions which were pilot-tested in each country.
Survey coordinators were trained to ensure that the survey protocol and procedures for
administration would be identical across the countries. Survey procedures were designed
to protect the students privacy by allowing for anonymous and voluntary participation.
C___________________________
Students who had ever smoked cigarettes ranged from a high of nearly a)___% in Ukraine
(Kiev), Poland (urban), and the Russian Federation (Moscow) to a low of approximately b)____
% in Shandong Province of China, and Sri Lanka (Table 1). Current cigarette smoking (i.e. had
smoked on one or more days during the 30 days preceding the survey) ranged from one-third of
students in Ukraine (Kiev) and the Russian Federation (Moscow), nearly c)____% in Poland
(urban), nearly d)____% in Costa Rica, Poland (rural), and South Africa, to e)_____% or less in
the other countries. The highest prevalence of early initiation of cigarette smoking was in
Chongqing and Poland (rural), where nearly one-third of the students who ever smoked
cigarettes started smoking before the age of 10 yea