Background: Previous studies have reported the association between receiving allowance and smoking rate in adolescents and the possibility of adolescents to work part-time jobs for purchasing tobacco. Part-time jobs among adolescents are becoming more common, the types and purposes of which have recently changed. We tried to assess the association between part-time job experience and smoking tobacco in adolescents.
Methods: We analyzed 62,276 subjects (49.2% girls) who participated in the 2017 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Frequency analysis, chi-square test, and logistic regression analysis were performed to understand the characteristics of variables, such as demographic and socioeconomic factors, and to analyze the association of part-time job experience with smoking tobacco as defined by ever-smokers.
Results: A total of 8,150 participants (19.3% boys and 6.6% girls) were ever-smokers. Among the 8,404 who had part-time job experiences (13.9% boys and 13.1% girls), the number of ever-smokers was higher (50.7% boys and 23.9% girls) than in those without part-time job experiences (14.3% boys and 4.0% girls). In logistic regression analysis, the risk for persons with part-time job experience to have a lifetime smoking experience was significantly higher (odds ratio, 2.49; 95% confidence interval, 2.32-2.68) after adjusting for the demographic, socioeconomic, and smoking-related factors.
Conclusion: Part-time job experience has a significant association with ever-smoking in Korean adolescents.