[Tobacco consumption among adolescents. Value of the intervention of health-service staff]. / Consumo de tabaco entre los adolescentes. Valor de la intervención del personal sanitario.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To describe the characteristics of tobacco consumption among adolescents seen at a health centre, find their opinions of the factors that affect consumption, and analyse the quality of the intervention of the health staff. DESIGN: Descriptive, cross-sectional study of adolescents attending the health centre. SETTING: Primary care (PC). PATIENTS All the young people between 10 and 20 who attended family medicine, paediatric or nursing clinics, whether on-demand or with appointments, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between December 2000 and February 2001. MAIN RESULTS: 23.1% of all the girls smoked (95% CI, 14.9-33.1) versus 15.3% of boys (95% CI, 8.4-24.7). Among non-smokers the main reason for not smoking was health (94.4%). 50% of smokers had tried to give up, of whom 70.5% tried for health-related reasons. 49.4% (95% CI, 41.8-57.1) of those included in the study had been asked at the health centre on some occasion whether they smoked (10.1% of these [95% CI, 4.2-19.8] were aged 10-13; 73.4% [95% CI, 60.9-83.7] 14-17; and 76.7% [CI 95% 61.4-88.2] 18-20); and 50.6% had never been asked. Of those who were asked and did smoke, 75% (95% CI, 55.1-89.3) were advised to give up and 4.7% of these (95% CI, 0.1-23.8) were offered help to do so. 28.81% of those who did not smoke (95% CI, 17.8-42.1) were encouraged to continue not to smoke. CONCLUSIONS: Both smokers and non-smokers are highly aware of the repercussions of tobacco on health. Tobacco dependency in young people was not tackled well enough at health centre clinics, especially by paediatricians.