Access to tobacco is recognised as one of the environmental risk factors for young people taking up smoking. As well as directly communicating with young people, tobacco control activities should also communicate with key audiences who can ultimately influence young people and their access to tobacco, such as friends, parents/caregivers, and their wider family/whānau.
Participants in the Health Promotion Agency’s (HPA’s) 2012 Youth Insights Survey (YIS) of Year 10 students were asked about where they got their cigarettes from, as well as how often they bought tobacco from a range of commercial outlets.
Methodology
Participants in the 2012 YIS were asked about where they got their cigarettes from, as well as how often they bought tobacco from a range of commercial outlets. Analyses were restricted to current smokers (n=222), and responses were examined by ethnicity and gender. When looking at the differences by ethnicity and gender we controlled for family (whether none, one, or more than one family member or caregiver smoked) and close friend (whether or not some of the respondents’ five closest friends smoked) smoking status. This means that we took into account the smoking status of family and friends, to ensure that any differences found are not in fact due to their smoking status. Source of cigarettes was also examined by parental and family/whānau smoking status.
Frequency of buying cigarettes from commercial outlets was also asked in 2006, 2008 and 2010, therefore further analysis was undertaken on these questions to examine changes over time.
Only those group and time differences which were statistically significant (p<.05) are reported.
Key Results
- Social sources of cigarettes were common, with just over one-half of current smokers saying that during the past month they usually got their cigarettes given to them by friends or peers.
- Dairies were the most frequented commercial outlet for cigarette purchases. One-half of current smokers had bought cigarettes from a dairy at least once in the past month, and one-in-five current smokers had done this four times or more.
- The proportion of current smokers who had bought cigarettes at least once in the past month from a dairy, service station, or supermarket in 2012 was similar to 2010, but lower than in 2008.