Factors related to betel chewing among junior high school students in Taiwan

A cross-sectional study was conducted to explore the betel-chewing behavior of junior high school students in Taichung County in 1998. The sample cons isted of 2244 students in the general area and 84 students in the aborigina l area. Fifty percent of the students in the aboriginal area had had the ex perience of chewing betel, and this figure includes 30.1% of the habitual c hewers. The prevalence of habitual betel chewers among the students in the general area is 4.3% to 5.0%. The major source of betel quid is friends or classmates, and curiosity accounts for most students' first experience of b etel chewing. Sixty percent of the students started betel chewing in elemen tary school. An effective health education program for students in the abor iginal area and younger students in the general areas as well as an evaluat ion procedure for the effectiveness of the program are needed to prevent th e increase of betel chewing among Taiwan's youth.