OBJECTIVETo study the contribution of puberty maturation to smoking behavior in Chinese adolescents.

METHODSA cross-sectional survey was carried out. One thousand four hundred and fifty-three senior middle school students aged from 15 - 18 years were recruited in Shanghai in 2000. A standardized self-administrated questionnaire was designed to obtain information on smoking, age at first nocturnal ejaculation in boys, age at menarche in girls and variables that might be associated with smoking in adolescents.

RESULTSIn boys, the prevalence of experimental smoking was highest among later maturers (28.6%), followed by the earlier (21.3%) and the average (21.7%), and the prevalence of current smoking was highest among earlier maturers (16.4%), followed by the later (7.1%) and then the average (4.8%). In girls, the prevalence of ever smoked among earlier, average and later maturers were as follows: 24.2%, 12.0%, 6.3% respectively. When psychosocial variables which might be associated with smoking were under control, early maturation was a significant risk factor for current smoking in boys (OR = 3.68, 95% CI: 1.23 - 10.99), and might be a risk factor for ever smoked in girls (OR = 2.23, 95% CI: 0.89 - 5.60). Whereas late maturation might have been a risk factor for boys to experiment smoking (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 0.72 - 3.06), while in girls it might be protective (OR = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.22 - 1.86).

CONCLUSIONEarlier or later matured boys and earlier matured girls were at higher risk of smoking. Pubertal changes and timing need to be considered in smoking prevention.