Background: Smoking is initiated mostly by adolescents and young adults. In Slovenia, we have limited data about this. The purpose of this paper is to show data on age at smoking initiation and differences in age at smoking initiation by gender, age groups, education, social class and geographical region among inhabitants of Slovenia.
Methods: We used data from the cross-sectional survey 'Health-related behaviour 2012' in Slovenian population aged from 25 to 74 years.
Results: 4591 ever smokers, aged 25-74, that gave information about the age at smoking initiation were included in the analysis. At the age of 25 or less, smoking was initiated by 96.7% of Slovene ever smokers, at the age of 18 or less by 71.0%. The average age at smoking initiation was 17.7 years. Male ever smokers initiated smoking at an earlier age compared to female ones. Age at smoking initiation was decreasing in both male and female ever smokers, but was more pronounced in females. In male ever smokers, there were no differences in average smoking initiation age by education, self-reported social class and geographical regions, while in female ever smokers, there were significant differences in terms of education and geographical regions.
Conclusion: The initiation of smoking predominantly occurs in adolescents and young adults. Age at smoking initiation has decreased in recent decades. Our study confirms the importance of early and sustained smoking prevention programmes in youth and the importance of national comprehensive tobacco control programme with effective tobacco control measures to ban tobacco products marketing.
Uvod: Podatki iz tujine kažejo, da začnejo kaditi praviloma mladostniki in mladi odrasli. Za Slovenijo imamo o tem malo podatkov. Namen prispevka je prikaz podatkov o starosti ob začetku kajenja in razlik v začetku kajenja glede na spol, starostne skupine, izobrazbo, družbeni sloj in geografsko regijo med prebivalci v Sloveniji.
Metode: Uporabili smo podatke iz presečne pregledne raziskave »Z zdravjem povezan vedenjski slog 2012« med prebivalci Slovenije, starimi od 25 do 74 let.
Rezultati: V analizo je bilo vključenih 4591 posameznikov, starih 25–74 let, ki so kadarkoli v življenju kadili, in so podali podatke o starosti ob začetku kajenja. V starosti 25 let ali manj je prvič kadilo 96,7% prebivalcev, ki so kadarkoli v življenju kadili, v starosti 18 let ali manj pa 71,0 %. Povprečna starost ob prvem kajenju je bila 17,7 leta. Moški, ki so kadili kadarkoli v življenju, so prvič kadili pri nižji povprečni starosti kot ženske. Povprečna starost ob začetku kajenja se je zniževala pri obeh spolih, a izraziteje med ženskami. V povprečni starosti ob začetku kajenja pri moških, ki so kadili kadarkoli v življenju, ni razlik glede na izobrazbo, samoporočani družbeni sloj in geografsko regijo, medtem ko so pri ženskah prisotne značilne razlike glede na izobrazbo in geografsko regijo. Ženske z najvišjo stopnjo izobrazbe, ki so kadile kadarkoli v življenju, in tiste iz vzhodne geografske regije so prvič kadile pri nižji starosti.
Zaključek: Kaditi začnejo in nadaljujejo do rednega kajenja večinoma mladostniki in mladi odrasli. Starost ob začetku kajenja se je v zadnjih desetletjih zniževala. Podatki iz raziskave potrjujejo pomembnost zgodnjih in dolgotrajnih programov preprečevanja kajenja med mladimi ter nacionalnega celovitega programa ukrepov nadzora nad tobakom za zaustavitev marketinga tobačnih izdelkov.
Keywords: Slovenia; adolescents; smoking; young adult.