Studio epidemiologico per la realizzazione di un programma di prevenzione del tabagismo in una popolazione di adolescenti.

In the last few years, the relative number of adolescent smokers has increased, which indicates the need to boost the adoption of new preventive strategies aimed at this part of the population. In order to be effective, preventive actions should be put in the local setting thoroughly knowing the target population and any specific-predictive factors of the insurgence of smoking addiction. To this purpose, we conducted a study aimed at describing the prevalence of smoking addiction in a population of 2472 adolescents and at identifying any predisposing factors. From the analysis of the results, both predisposing and protective factors emerged, together with many formative requests from the adolescents. On the basis of such results, we were able to create ad hoc preventive interventions. The proposed strategy seems to be potentially valid; however, we will be able to express a more precise judgment only at the end of the implementation phase.