Aim: to study the prevalence of smoking among adolescents.

Research materials and methods: An anonymous survey was conducted in colleges among 1,819 teenagers. According to the survey, 17.7% of the people surveyed are smokers. Of these, 87.9% were men, 12.1% were women, 20.3% were former smokers and 62% were non-smokers. Among non-smoking patients, 76% of people have tried cigarettes in their lifetime. Thus, already 40% of respondents currently have a history of smoking. The average age of smoking initiation in respondents was 16.2±2.6 years. It should be noted that among all respondents, 2.5% acquired their first smoking experience at the age of 10, 54.7% of students started smoking at the age of 11 to 16. Thus, 57.2% of college students started smoking at school age. The majority of the surveyed have a weak nicotine dependence - 64.0%, 10.0% have a high dependence on nicotine. 41% of respondents have weak motivation to quit smoking. 33% of respondents noted attachment to smoking as a support for nervous tension. 59% of respondents had parents who were active smokers. 22.5% of respondents believe that smoking is "unacceptable regardless of age", 10.3% ? that smoking is "unacceptable for teenagers and young people". 25.8% - that smoking is "a personal matter of every person", and 18.7% consider smoking an acceptable occupation for teenagers. Along with the survey, the concentration of CO in exhaled air was determined, which revealed 1.5 times more smokers among boys and 2.5 times more among girls.

Conclusions: when studying the true situation with tobacco smoking, it is better to use the determination of the carbon monoxide content in the exhaled air.