Introduction:

Currently, smoking is one of the greatest threats to public health worldwide. Death attributed to tobacco in Paraguay represents 12.2% of all deaths and the cost of the disease associated with tobacco consumption in the health system is high.

Objectives:

The objective of this study is to describe the characteristics of tobacco consumption in young people in Paraguay.

Materials and methods:

A non-probabilistic descriptive cross-sectional study of standardized sampling was carried out with national representativeness in students enrolled from 7th to 9th grade of basic school education, from 13 to 15 years old of both sexes that included 6,518 students, corresponding to 25 schools in the capital and 25 schools in the rest of the country.

Results:

The current prevalence of tobacco product use was 7%, current smokers 3.9%, and electronic cigarette smokers 3.7%. The prevalence of second-hand smokers was more than 20% in all the scenarios studied. High percentage of adolescents with easy access to the purchase of cigarettes without age verification. More than 50% with access to advertising messages about tobacco. Almost 30% were aware of the harmful effect of tobacco and more than 80% are in favor of the prohibition of smoking in closed and open spaces.

Conclusion:

Although the prevalence of smoking in adolescents is not very high, it is a growing public health problem. It is necessary to strengthen prevention and control measures.

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