Association between adolescents lifestyle habits and smoking experience : Focusing on comparison between experienced and non-experienced smokers

Objectives: This study aimed to provide foundational data for preventing adolescents smoking by analyzing the relationship between adolescents' lifestyles and smoking experiences and identifying influencing factors. Methods: Secondary data analysis was conducted using the 17th (2021) Youth Health Behavior Survey data, encompassing 54,848 students from 796 schools. Variables included general characteristics, smoking status, lifestyle habits, physical activity, sleep patterns, and stress perception. Frequency analysis was used to examine general characteristics, while further analysis employed frequency analysis and the Pearson Chi-square test to compare lifestyle differences based on smoking presence. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was employed to determine factors influencing smoking experience, with IBM SPSS Statistics 28 used for all analyses at a significance level of p<.05. Results: Analysis revealed with general characteristics that the group with smoking experience exhibited a higher proportion of male students (67.4%) compared to the non-smoking group (50.1%) (p<.001). Analysis revealed that the smoking group was more likely to skip breakfast (27.7%), not consume fruit (17.8%), and consume fast food more than three times daily (0.9%). Furthermore, a higher percentage of smokers engaged in 60 minutes or more of breathless physical activity (8.4%) seven times a week, reported insufficient fatigue recovery through sleep (21.6%), and experienced very severe normal stress (17.2%) (p<.001). Analysis of the relationship between lifestyle and smoking indicated increased likelihood of smoking with zero breakfast consumption (OR=1.759, p<.001) and increased fruit consumption (OR=1.921, p<.001), while zero fast food consumption decreased smoking likelihood (OR=0.206, p<.001). Adequate sleep-related fatigue recovery reduced smoking likelihood (OR=0.458, p<.001), whereas increased stress elevated it (OR=1.260, p<.05). Conclusion: Adolescents' lifestyle habits significantly correlated with their smoking experiences, highlighting the necessity of considering lifestyle factors in smoking prevention strategies. This study provides crucial insights for promoting healthy lifestyle changes to prevent smoking among youth.