Association between forced displacement and cigarette smoking among Colombian adolescents

ABSTRACT

Objective

To establish the relationship between forced displacement and cigarette consumption among high-school students in Colombia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was designed with the participation of high-school students (10th and 11th grade in Colombia) under 18 years of age. The crude and adjusted relationship (odds ratios) between internal forced displacement and cigarette consumption during the last month was established. It was adjusted for covariates (age, gender, educational level, and income) and confounding variables (depression and family dysfunction).

Results

1,462 students between the ages of 13 and 17 participated (M = 15.98; SD = 0.83); 60.33% were women, 55.34% were in tenth grade, and 49.59% lived in low-income neighborhoods. A total of 113 (7.73%) students reported forced displacement, 103 (7.05%) reported depression, 1,112 (76.06%) scored for family dysfunction, and 149 (10.19%) students reported last-month cigarette consumption. After adjusting for covariates and confounding variables, forced internal displacement and cigarette smoking showed a statistically significant association (OR = 2.48, 95%CI 1.47–4.21).

Conclusions

A statistically significant relationship between forced displacement and last-month cigarette smoking among Colombian adolescents is observed. It is necessary to investigate other social determinants related to adolescent cigarette smoking.

KEYWORDS:

• Forced displacement
• smoking
• adolescents
• cross-sectional studies

Acknowledgments

Authors want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the invaluable cooperation in the process of collecting the information from the psychology students’ research assistants: Adriana Rodríguez Martínez, Ana Celis Márquez, Carlos Fuentes López, Daniela Gonzales Cantillo, Heiner Tordecilla Arroyo, Nataly Tapia Duarte, Sandra Gómez Mariscal and Yuleinys Dávila Gómez and the support psychology professionals of the Health Psychology and Psychiatry Research Group: Amparo Echeverry Arias, Heigui Araújo Zúñiga, Johana Guerrero Bolaño and María Paola Jiménez Villamizar.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

Research Vice-Rectory of the Universidad del Magdalena financed this research through Resolution 0347 of 2018, within the framework of the Fonciencias 2017 Call, which appointed Dr. Adalberto Campo Arias as principal investigator.