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Article History

Received: 27 January 2026

Accepted: 30 April 2026

First Online: 24 May 2026

Declarations

:

: This study was conducted in accordance with internationally accepted ethical standards for research involving human participants. Access to the anonymized 2021 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) dataset was obtained through the World Health Organization (WHO) NCD Microdata Repository. The GYTS data are fully de-identified prior to release, ensuring that no individual respondents can be identified. As the analysis involved secondary use of existing anonymized data and required no direct contact with participants, additional ethical approval or informed consent was not required. The study therefore posed minimal risk and complied with WHO data access and research ethics requirements. Not applicable. This manuscript does not involve human participants or individual-level data.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.