Risk-taking behaviour of Cape Peninsula high-school students. Part III. Cigarette smoking.

The prevalence of a wide range of risk-taking behaviour among high-school students in the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, was investigated. In this article, the results for cigarette smoking are presented. Cluster sampling techniques produced a sample of 7,340 students from 16 schools in the three major education departments. A self-administered questionnaire was completed in a normal school period. Estimates for each education department were weighted to produce an overall estimate. Of the students 18.1% indicated that they smoked at least 1 cigarette per day. Of these, 66.9% had tried to stop. Of those who did not smoke at least 1 cigarette per day, 41.2% had smoked previously and 3.6% intended to start smoking. There were different trends according to gender, standard, and language(s) spoken at home. Of note was the small percentage of Xhosa-speaking females who smoked. There is an urgent need for smoking prevention programmes in schools.