|
Parents
trying to give
up smoking have another reason to do it sooner rather than later.
New research shows that parents who quit while their kids are young
reduce the chances that their children will become smokers themselves.
"I
suspect parents tend to underestimate their influence on their kids'
smoking behavior," said Jonathan Bricker of the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center, lead author of the study. It was published in
the journal Addiction (Vol. 98, No. 5: 585-593).
Bricker and
his colleagues followed more than 3,000 school children for nine years
to try to pinpoint that parental influence.
When the
children were in 3rd grade (8-9 years old), the researchers asked the
parents about their smoking habits. Nine years later, when the children
were in 11th and 12th grade, the researchers again questioned the
parents about their smoking and asked the children about their own
habits. The kids also were given a saliva swab to confirm whether they
had been using tobacco.
Not
surprisingly, the study showed that children of two current smoking
parents were most likely to be smokers themselves: 37% of these kids
smoked daily in 12th grade. Just 14% of the high school seniors whose
parents had never smoked were smokers, as were 26% of kids with parents
who had both quit.
Timing Is
Important
But quitting
early before kids started to form attitudes about tobacco made a
difference.
The
researchers found that when both parents quit smoking before their child
was in 3rd grade, the child had a 39% lower risk of becoming a daily
smoker by high school, compared to children whose parents both still
smoked. When just one parent had quit before the child was in 3rd grade,
the risk was 25% lower.
"What
this tells parents is that not only can they affect their own health if
they quit, but they can protect their children from the tobacco-related
diseases they could get down the line," said Tom Glynn,
director of cancer science and trends for the American Cancer Society.
More
research is needed to determine the impact of a parent kicking the habit
when the child is older than 3rd grade.
New Focus for
Public Health Programs
Bricker and
his colleagues say public health officials should consider involving
parents in programs that try to keep
kids off cigarettes.
"It
could be as simple as sending home a brochure or inviting parents to
school for a program," he said. Pediatricians can also play a role
by encouraging smoking parents to quit for the benefit of their
children. The findings can also be included into general smoking
cessation programs.
The benefits
of encouraging such programs could be huge, the researchers say.
"If all
smoking parents were to quit by the time their children reached age 8
years, then every year 136,000 youth in the United States would be
prevented from becoming daily smokers," they write.
|
