Knowledge of smoking and influencing factors among school-going adolescents in Timor-Leste

Objectives Knowledge of smoking is a protective factor for adolescent smoking. This study is the first to examine sociodemographic and lifestyle factors associated with adolescents’ knowledge of smoking in Timor-Leste. It is also a pioneering investigation into the ways in which exposure to anti-tobacco messages and health warnings on cigarette packages, and involvement in smoking-related education at schools and home mediate the relationship between school grade levels and smoking knowledge. Methods Data were obtained from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey Timor-Leste. Ordered logistic regressions were used to examine the associations between knowledge of smoking and sociodemographic, and lifestyle factors. Structural equation modelling was utilized to explore the mediating effects. Results Adolescents were less likely to have high knowledge of smoking if they were lower-secondary students, were males, had unemployed parents and had no closest friends who smoked. The relationship between grade levels and smoking knowledge was partly mediated by awareness of anti-tobacco messages on mass media, school education about the dangers of smoking and family discussion about smoking. Conclusions Sociodemographic and lifestyle factors play an important role in determining knowledge of smoking among adolescents. To some extent, awareness-, education- and family-related variables explain how grade levels affect smoking knowledge.