HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-aged @entity1 ) study can serve as a basis for monitoring smoking prevalence in school-aged @entity1 . Previous studies 1990-1998 have shown an increase in @entity286 smoking among 15-year-old students, followed by a decrease in 1998-2002. The aim of this study was to present current international comparisons of selected indicators and changes in 2002-2006. An international standard questionnaire prepared in the frame of HBSC study was used and school-based cross-sectional survey was conducted. In Poland, the sample was selected as representative for pupils from III grade of lower secondary school with mean age of 15.7 yrs (2002 N = 2152; 2006 N = 2287). Polish data was compared with combined international samples from 37 countries. In 2006, 58.9% of Polish 15-year-old students reported that ever tried to smoke, 24.6% smoked at the time of survey, while 12.4% were regular smokers. The proportion of @entity1 who reported every day smoking has decreased substantially during 2002-2006. The rate of change was lower in @entity1 than in @entity1 . Decreasing trend was observed in most HBSC network countries. However, in most countries the improvement was higher than in Poland, especially in @entity1 . More attention should be paid to divergent trends in smoking among adolescent @entity1 and @entity1 . Despite favorable trends in Polish @entity1 , smoking prevalence is still too high by comparison to other countries and age of smoking initiation is very low.

[Selected indicators of XXXX smoking in 15-year-old students in Poland in relation to international statistics].

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['children', 'Children', 'girls', 'boys'] @entity286 :: ('4097', 'Species') :: ['tobacco']
@entity286 :: (4097,Species) :: ['tobacco']
