Factors that influence smoking among secondary school students in Ilala municipality. Nyinondi, Ssanyu Sylvia.

In the wake of increasing tobacco consumption amongst young people globally, this study set out to investigate factors that influence smoking among secondary school students in Ilala Municipality. This was a cross sectional descriptive study that involved a random sample of 275 students from five secondary schools in Ilala. The subjects involved in the study were in form three to form six. Semi structured questionnaires were used for gathering data. The results showed that 22.1% of students had experimented with cigarettes and 4.1 % of the total sample population was current smokers. The mean age for initial smoking was 14 years and curiosity was given as the main reason to start experimenting with smoking. The proportion of students reported to have started smoking at home was 41%. Ever smoking was highly associated with having a classmate, a close friend and a sibling who smokes, high daily allowances and low parental education. The findings indicate that experimenting with smoking is common amongst students due to interaction of various interpersonal and environmental factors. It was also evident that students know that smoking is harmful but have mixed perception of what exactly are the dangers of smoking. It is recommended that more information be provided to the students on the dangers of smoking.