'Current smoking rate' of male students in rural areas showed a trend of significant increase from 16.1% in 2005 to 21.6% in 2009 (p=0.009), whereas the male students of small towns and metropolitan cities and female students in rural areas did not show a statistically significant trend.
Although there was no group showing a statistically significant trend in the 'smoking rate of more than 10 cigarettes a day', the male students in rural areas showed an increasing trend at a borderline significance level from 3.1% in 2005 to 6.2% in 2008 and to 5.3% in 2009 (p=0.070), and the male students in small towns showed a decreasing trend at a borderline significance level from 2.7% in 2005 to 4.8% in 2006 and to 3.8% in 2009 (p=0.066).
Results Statistically significant increasing trends in current smoking rate and frequent smoking rate were observed and borderline significant increasing trends in heavy smoking rate were shown among rural boys.