Objective:

To estímate the smoking prevalence; characterize smoking adolescents linked to tobacco use; describe the studied adolescents according to individual and familiar factors related with smoking, and to identify the risk and protective factors against tobacco at home.

Materials and Methods:

Analytic transversal study in two phases: descriptive and analytic, from January to December 2016 in the urban zone of the working health areaof the “Pedro Esperón Policlinic”, in Bauta, Artemisa, Cuba. The universe was 4773 adolescents between 10 and 19 years old and the sample was 348 adolescents;one of their parents or tutors were chosen by conglomerates samples. To obtain the information,questionnaires wereconstructed, observation and survey were used. The statistics techniques: Chi square test of independence, Chi square test of homogeneity and logistic regression were used to analyze the independent association among factors linked to the present use of tobacco.Ethical principles were considered.

Results:

High smoking prevalence (14, 080 %), early starting age of tobacco consumption (13,5 years), motives to initiate: influenced by other people, mostly friends (46,9 %) and fashion or curiosity (42,9 %). The 61,2 % smoked cigarettes occasionally; the usual places for consumption were: celebrations 69,4 %, friends’ homes 57,1 % and public roads 55,1 %. Adolescents generally smoked with friends 83,7 %. Self-esteem and permissive family are risk factors, while the number of people living together with the adolescents are a protective factor.

Conclusions:

A poor self-value and the permissibility of parents and tutors, are confirmed boosters for tobacco consumption in Cuban adolescents, which is similar to what has been described previously.

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