Sociodemographic and behavioural factors associated with alcohol and tobacco use in a sample of Brazilian adolescents

ABSTRACT

Objective

The aim of the present study is to identify sociodemographic and behavioral factors associated with alcohol and tobacco use among adolescents.

Methods

Students (n = 712) from the 7º to the 9º grade of six public schools were analyzed. The frequency of tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption during the 30 days before the survey was reported. Physical activity, sleep duration, eating habits, screen time, and sociodemographic variables were retrieved. Mixed-effects logistic regressions were performed.

Results

The prevalence of alcohol consumption was 25.6% and cigarette smoking was 2.9%. In adjusted models, age and sweets intake were associated with both cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. Age (OR = 2.32, 95%CI 1.5–3.7) and sweets intake (OR = 1.32, 95%CI 1.1–1.6) were positively related to odds of cigarette smoking while time watching TV were negatively associated with cigarette smoking (OR = 0.65, 95%CI 0.5–0.9). Age (OR = 1.9, 95%CI 1.6–2.3), sweets intake (OR = 1.2, 95%CI 1.0–1.3), and physical activity were positively associated with alcohol consumption (OR = 2.13, 95%CI 1.5–3.1).

Conclusions

While the prevalence of cigarette smoking was low, it was high for alcohol consumption. Behavioural, but not sociodemographic factors were associated with early smoking and alcohol use among adolescents. Interventions and policies may be more successful considering these factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent
• cigarette smoking
• public health
• tobacco
• underage drinking

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants and school staff involved in the study, as well as the funding agencies that supported the researchers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The participants’ data are not publicly available as the original approval by the Ethics Committee of research with human beings of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (n. 1.259.910) and the informed consent from the participants and their respective legal guardians stated the individual information will not be shared. If a reader wants more information on the data underlying the present article, the authors can provide a more detailed description of every step of the statistical analysis at: [email protected]

Individual collaboration of each author

All authors contributed effectively to the study and the preparation of the manuscript. The authors BGG da Costa, BN Oliveira, ACC Souza, LEA Malheiros, RM Costa participated in the writing of the document, data collection and analysis, and interpretation of the data. KS Silva participated in the critical review and forecast of the final version for publication.

Informed consent

All participants provided a consent form signed by their respective legal guardians.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

All procedures were approved by the Federal University of Santa Catarina’s Ethics Committee (n. 1.259.910).

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001 (BGGC, BNO, and ACCS received scholarships from CAPES). Funding was granted for the Movimente Study by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq/Edital Universal 14/2014, Process number: 446227/2014-5), which also provided scholarship to LEAM. Scholarship was provided to RMC by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas - Brasil (FAPEAM).