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Background: The objective of this study was to assess cross-sectional and prospective relations between alcohol and tobacco use among Romanian adolescents, giving special attention to possible gender differences. Methods: The data were obtained from a two-wave 1-year longitudinal study carried out among 403 Romanian high school students aged 15–17 years (mean age 15.9; SD = 0.3). Questionnaires were used to assess smoking behaviour and alcohol use. Both behaviours were classified into two categories, that of adolescents who used the substance (at least once/month) and that of those who did not use the substance or used it less than monthly. Logistic regression was used to determine which substance was the best predictor of the subsequent use of the other substance. Results: Alcohol and cigarette use were found to be linked reciprocally and this interrelationship differed across genders. Among girls smoking predicted alcohol use better than the converse, while for the boys it was the other way around. Conclusion: It is important for future studies of adolescent substance use to systematically investigate the gender differences in the tobacco–alcohol relationship.

This paper reviews data published between 1990 and 2006 regarding smoking prevalence as well as individual and contextual influences on the smoking behavior among Romanian young adults. Highlights include a consideration of multiple levels of influence, from intra-individual factors, such as demographic and cognitive factors, to social influences, such as families and peers, to the more macro, societal/cultural levels of influence, including advertising and tobacco-related policies The source of data is represented by articles and short information published in journals or in electronic format, legislation, statistics and are illustrated with pictures. Based on these data, recommendations for future smoking prevention and reduction actions for Romanian youth are taken.

A cross-sectional research study was carried out among Romanian adolescents to identify gender differences in beliefs and behaviour regarding smoking. A written survey was conducted among 473 students aged 15-17 years from 5 senior high schools in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. All students filed in a questionnaire which assessed their smoking-related behaviour. The results show that one quarter (24.5%) of the subjects were smokers, a significant differences was noticed, regarding the prevalence of smoking between boys (32.2%) and girls (20.9%). Smoking behaviour served a stronger function for smoking girls to remain slim, while smoking boys had stronger beliefs that smoking helped them to relax. Self-efficacy expectations to handle emotional situations without smoking were significantly lower in smoking girls than in smoking boys. Moreover, in comparison with non-smoking boys, non-smoking girls reported low self-efficacy to maintain their non-smoking status when upset, depressed or nervous, and a stronger intention to start smoking than non-smoking boys. Non-smoking boys reported stronger pressures to smoke from their peers in the same school year. These findings have several implications for smoking prevention and reduction activities in Romania. First, smoking prevention programs should strengthen positive attitudes towards non-smoking, resistance against peer influences and enhance self-efficacy beliefs. Second, smoking prevention and reduction activities should address the fact that smoking is seen by Romanian girls as a way to control their weight, and as a way to relax by boys, and thus need to offer other healthier alternatives to realize these outcomes. Additionally, they need to address strategies to cope with emotional situations, in particular for girls.

The seasonal fluctuations of the morbidity of a population group in a city with strongly polluted atmosphere was compared with a non‐polluted city. The period of study comprised 5 years and included both adults and children. In order to compare the observed data the results were standardized per 100,000 of the population. In the case of adults, both the groups of acute respiratory infections and of acute bronchitis reach morbidity levels in polluted towns which exceed those of non‐polluted areas. In the town with strongly polluted atmosphere, in the case of children, the results confirm the greater frequency of the same diseases, while the seasonal curves present improvement only for a single period. This phenomenon supports the assumption that air pollution causes an increased number of diseases, irrespective of the season of the year. A clear seasonal phenomenon in the town with polluted atmosphere was observed in the case of chronical bronchitis, both in the case of adults and children. There ...