Smoking and Impaired Lung Function in Students of Technical Vocational Schools in Greece

Introduction: Smoking remains a major health issue, despite recent European legislation. Adolescents and young adults exhibit high smoking rates resulting in severe morbidity and mortality later in life. The purpose of this study was to determine socio-economic, demographic and environmental factors contributing to active smoking and deterioration of lung function in adolescents and young students of technical schools.

Materials and methods: The study sample comprised 265 students in technical vocational schools in Western Greece. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey tools were used to assess smoking habits in the study population.

Results: A percentage of 61.2% of the sample were male, with most of them aged 14-18 years. The rate of current smokers was as high as 81.1%. Smoking status, age, age of smoking start, poor accommodation and the number of cigarettes were identified as independent prognostic factors of PEF (% pred). Smokers and those in their late teens also had a lower FEV1 (% pred.).

Discussion: Young smokers in schools may have impaired respiratory function earlier in their life, therefore prompt interventions in high school education are justified.

Keywords: pulmonary function test; environmental factors; students; smoking; spirometry.