Knowledge, Attitude, Practice about Smoking and Its Associated Factors among Higher Secondary School Students in Kathmandu Metropolitan City

Abstract

Cigarette smoking is one of the chief preventable causes of death and illness in the world. Presently, millions of people die yearly due to smoking related diseases. The objective of the study was to find the prevalence, associated factors and knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking among higher secondary school students of the Kathmandu metropolitan city. A cross-sectional study among 445 higher secondary students of Grade XI and Grade XII of the Kathmandu metropolitan city was done. Two-stage stratified sampling technique was applied while selection of the sample. The prevalence of cigarette smoking amongst higher secondary students was found to be 28.1%. From binary logistic regression, smoking is significantly associated with the current smoking habits of fathers, the smoking habits of the five closer friends of the respondent and the mother’s occupation (p-value <0.0001). The majority of students had sound knowledge on the harmful effects of smoking, and a negative attitude towards smoking habits, however the prevalence of smoking was still high in higher secondary students.

Keywords: Smoking, higher secondary students, prevalence of smoking, KAP

Cite this Article Kashyap Kumar Sharma, Santosh Kumar Shah. Knowledge, Attitude, Practice about Smoking and Its Associated Factors among Higher Secondary School Students in Kathmandu Metropolitan City. Research & Reviews: Journal of Statistics. 2017; 6(3): 48–55p.