Smoking rates among high school students have nearly halved in recent years, according to a major study by Maastricht University and GGD Zuid-Limburg involving over 25,000 secondary school students.
The proportion of students who started smoking by ages 13 or 15 dropped by half between 1996 and 2005. For the first time, researchers have quantified the long-term health impact of this decline.
Using a RIVM calculation model, experts project 11,500 fewer new COPD cases (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease – a chronic condition obstructing airways), 3,400 fewer lung cancer cases, and 1,800 fewer heart attacks in this cohort compared to 1996 levels.
Findings draw from a large-scale survey of second- and fourth-year students across all secondary schools in southeast Netherlands. Smoking among second-year students fell from 22% in 1996 to 8% by 2006; for fourth-year students, it declined from 38% to 22%.
Notably, the reductions were consistent across all school levels (VMBO, HAVO, VWO) and showed no significant differences between boys and girls.
