PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing lifetime smoking and current smoking among adolescents in South Korea. METHODS Hierarchical logistic regression was conducted based on complex sample analysis using statistics from the 10th (2014) Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey. The study sample comprised 72,060 adolescents aged 12 to 18. RESULTS The signif...

Despite a large number of observational studies consistently reporting the association between shorter sleep duration and higher body weight, causality has yet to be established at a population level. This study aims to estimate the population-level causal effect of sleep duration on adolescent body weight, using an instrumental variable (IV) approach that exploits a unique natural experiment i...

This report is to examine changes in the smoking prevalence among adults and adolescents and provide basic data for national health policies. Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1998 to 2013 and Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey from 2005 to 2013 were used to estimate national adults and adolescents smoking prevalence. In 2013, current cigarette smoking prevalen...

OBJECTIVES Understanding recent trends in cigarette smoking among adolescents is important in order to develop strategies to prevent cigarette smoking. The aim of this study was to compare recent trends in cigarette smoking for adolescents living in rural areas, small towns and metropolitan cities in Korea. METHODS The raw data from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBWS) from...

OBJECTIVES To examine the association between cigarette smoke exposure and depression among Korean adolescents using the seventh Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBWS). DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING A nationally representative sample of middle and high school students across South Korea. PARTICIPANTS 75 643 eligible participants across the country. PRIMARY OUTCOME M...

We conducted the screening of sexually transmitted infections to define the prevalence of genital Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections and status of sexual risk behavior among homeless adolescents (10-19 yr old) in Korea. Adolescents who ran away from home and are under the care of youth shelters in ten cities in Korea served as the study population. Participants filled ou...

OBJECTIVES To comprehensively examine the relationship between current sleep duration and past suicidal idea or attempt among Korean adolescents. METHODS Data came from the 2009 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey with 75 066 participants (with the participation rate of 97.6%) in 800 middle and high schools. Binary logistic regression was conducted by gender and depressed mood to ident...