The results indicated that the prevalence of smoking among secondary and vocational school
children aged 12 to 19 years was 6.8% (95% CI 6.4, 7.3). The last survey conducted in 1999
by the NSO reported a rate of 6.3% among individual ages 15 to 19 years. In comparison to
the same age group in this study, the prevalence rate was more than two times higher at a rate
of 15.6%. The prevalence rates increased in both male and female. The prevalence of
smoking was still much higher in male students compared to female students (13.8% vs.
0.7%). However, female students showed a much larger increase. As shown in Table E1, the
gap between rates of smoking between male and female was much smaller in Bangkok than
other regions, where in Bangkok, the prevalence of male smokers, 5.9%, was 3 times that of
the female smokers, 2.1%, while in other regions, it was approximately 26 times higher. The
high prevalence together with a more rapid increase among female students in Bangkok is a
significant public health concern.