Association Between Sense of Coherence and Tobacco Use Among Brazilian Adolescent Students

Abstract

Background: Investigating tobacco use and associated factors is essential to set priorities and health promotion strategies among adolescents. Several studies examined the relationship between this behavior and the psychosocial salutogenic construct Sense of Coherence (SOC), but the evidence is limited to adolescents in high-income countries. This study aimed to analyze the association between tobacco use and SOC among Brazilian adolescent students. Methods: A cross-sectional school-based survey was conducted in 2018. Dependent variables were categorical binary (Yes/No): (1) Smoking experimentation (at least one puff in a lifetime); (2) Current smoking (at least one cigarette smoked in the last 30 days); (3) Daily cigarette smoking; and (4) Experimentation with hookah and/or other tobacco products (at least once in a lifetime). Independent variable SOC was assessed with the SOC-13 item scale. Independent-samples t-Test and Logistic regression were used in the statistical analyses. Potential confounders were identified using a Directed Acyclic Graph. Results: Participants were 3034 adolescents aged 13–19. The mean SOC scores were higher among adolescents who answered no to each of the dependent variables than among those who answered yes (p < .05). In the regression analysis, those with higher SOC scores were less likely to report smoking experimentation, current use, daily use, and experimentation with hookah and/or other tobacco products, than those with lower SOC scores. The associations remained after controlling for sociodemographic and/or social-environmental factors. Conclusion: An inverse relationship between SOC and tobacco use was observed among Brazilian adolescent students.

Keywords:

• Adolescent health
• health promotion
• hookah
• salutogenesis
• sense of coherence
• smoking
• tobacco

Authors’ contributions

LER: conceptualization of the study, questionnaire design, sampling design and data collection, analysis and manuscript drafting. MCMF: conceptualization of the study, questionnaire design, sampling design, and critical review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethical approval

The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Boards of the Federal University of Goiás (REC/UFG) (Approval N. 2142027) and the Federal Institute of Goiás (Approval N. 2556510).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Goiás State Research Support Foundation (FAPEG), Goiás, Brazil (Call for Proposals No. 04/2017), and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel/Ministry of Education, Brazil (CAPES/MEC: Funding Code 001).