An Analysis of the Links between Smoking and BMI in Adolescents: A Moving Average Approach to Establishing the Statistical Relationship between Quantitative and Dichotomous Variables.

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of smoking on BMI in male adolescents and explore the relationship between smoking status and diet.

Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study into the health and diet of adolescents was carried out based on a representative sample of 375 vocational school male students aged 16-17 in the city of Chelyabinsk (Russian Federation). The students and their parents filled out verified questionnaires on their socioeconomic status, diet, and smoking status. Students' height and body weight were measured. A comparative analysis of diets was performed between groups of smokers and non-smokers (149 and 226 individuals, respectively), and the relationship between smoking, body mass index, and actual diet was estimated. The methods used included descriptive statistics, Student's -test, Mann-Whitney U test, comparison of proportions, and moving average.

Results: Non-smoking adolescent boys tended to have excess body mass compared with smokers (19.0% and 12.1%, respectively). Smokers (adolescent boys) consumed less meat, cereals, beans, and cheeses and more sweet beverages, added sugar, coffee, and alcohol. The bulk of the smokers' diet was composed of carbohydrates ( = 0.026) and, to a lesser extent, proteins ( = 0.006).

Conclusions: Significant differences were discovered in the diet between smokers and non-smokers (among adolescent boys), and smoking was associated with several indicators of unhealthy diet patterns. This is an important conclusion for developing a future program that could additionally protect at-risk groups of adolescents.