Background: There are a multitude of factors that influence smoking status, and minors from the social protection system are a vulnerable category in terms of smoking.
Methods: The objective of this research was to assess the degree of smoking dependence and to identify potential predictors of smoking status in foster care teenagers. Smoker status was confirmed by dosing CO in the exhaled air, and the degree of dependence was assessed using the Fagerström score. We performed a multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: From the 275 foster care minors, 22.5% were current smokers. Exhaled CO was not influenced by general demographic factors, was associated with the frequency of smoking, and was positively correlated with the estimated number of cigarettes consumed daily and with the Fagerström score. The calculated probability of being a smoker was less than 20.4% in 75% of nonsmokers, whereas 75% of actual smokers had a predicted probability higher than 30.3%.
Conclusions: In addition to age, gender, social environment, previous exposure to secondhand smoking, and residential type of foster care system, the expressed opinions regarding the health effects of tobacco use were associated with smoking in foster care teenagers.
Keywords: foster care minors; smoking behavior; tobacco use.