The number of high school students who smoke has almost halved in recent years. This and more is apparent from a study by Maastricht University and GGD Zuid-Limburg among more than 25,000 secondary school students.
The number of high school students who started smoking at age 13 or 15 halved between 1996 and 2005. For the first time, the effect of this decrease on the incidence of smoking-related diseases has been calculated.
According to a calculation model from the RIVM, this will cause 11,500 fewer new COPD cases in this age group. (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease – a long-term (chronic) condition causing an obstruction of the airways), 3,400 fewer new cases of lung cancer and 1,800 fewer heart attacks occur in the future, compared to thirteen-year-olds in 1996.
The researchers base their conclusions on a large-scale survey of second and fourth graders from all secondary schools in the southeast of the Netherlands. In 1996, 22 percent of second-graders still smoked. By 2006, that number had fallen to 8 percent. Among the fourth graders, that percentage fell from 38 percent to 22 percent in the same period.
It was striking that the decrease in all school types (VMBO, HAVO and VWO) is approximately the same. There were also no differences between boys and girls.
