Factors associated with commencing smoking in 12-year-old students in Catalonia (Spain): a cross-sectional population-based study

Background Over the last decade notable progress has been made in developed countries on monitoring smoking although experimenting with cigarettes and smoking in young people remains a serious public health problem. This paper reports a cross-sectional study at the beginning of the 3-year follow-up community study TA_BES. The aim was to study the prevalence of smoking in addition to determining predictive factors for when smoking commences in a representative population of 12-year-old first year compulsory secondary education students.