Hi girls!!!
As I think that the daily habits are very influential in certain diseases. Smoking is a bad habit which is very frequently in our population for that here I leave you an article that I consider interesting. It´s a study of Purdue's university : 'Teens' smoking influenced by older siblings, parents' lifelong smoking habits"
Do you think that the children of smoking parents smoke? or on the contrary does that your father smokes produces that you don´t do?
Should we do preventive medicine with the children of smoking parents?
Hope you like it!
Study: Teens'
smoking influenced by older siblings, parents' lifelong smoking habits
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Teens who
smoke are significantly influenced by whether older siblings smoke as well as
if their parents smoke now or did in the past, according to research from
Purdue University.
"It's no surprise that the
children of heavy smokers smoked, but what is surprising is that the rate of
teens whose parents started smoking later in life or who had quit or reduced
their smoking was just as high, if not higher," said Mike Vuolo, an
assistant professor of sociology who studies youth behavior and substance use.
"The children of later-life smokers were 29 percent more likely to smoke,
and that number was higher than children of heavy smokers or those whose parents
started smoking as teenagers but had quit or reduced their amount.
"Even though these rates are
high, young teens are more likely to smoke if an older sibling does, or if they
live with a parent who is a heavy smoker. Based on these findings, antismoking
prevention for youth really needs to target the children of parents who smoked
at any time in their life, as well as if siblings are smoking."
The findings are published in Pediatrics,
and the National Institutes of Health funded the work. The data is based on 214
adults who have been surveyed regularly since 1988 beginning at age 14 in the Youth Development
Study. This data covers the adults up to age 38. The 314 children of these
adults were ages 11-19. Vuolo, who led the study, also worked with Jeremy
Staff, an associate professor of criminology and sociology at Penn State
University. The Youth Development Study is run by the University of Minnesota.
"Parents' influence on youth
smoking is not new, but the quality of this data has followed the parents for
more than 20 years and shows the history of their smoking patterns,
specifically length and amount, and how that has affected their children,"
Vuolo said.
Most previous research also is
based on one-time surveys that rely on retrospective feedback from parents.
Because parents' smoking could be
tracked for 24 years, the parents could be separated into four groups:
non-smokers, heavy smokers, light smokers or those who had quit, and late-onset
smokers who didn't start smoking until early adulthood. Eight percent of
non-smokers' children had smoked in the past year and 25 percent the children
of heavy smokers (at least half a pack a day) reported smoking. The data showed
that children of parents who started smoking as teenagers and who had quit or
reduced their smoking by age 38 smoked at a rate 23 percent, and the highest
percentage of youth smoking, at 29 percent, was by children of parents who
started smoking later in life in their 20s.
"The similarities for the
three smoking groups were surprising," Vuolo said. "I thought the
children of smokers who had reduced their smoking or quit would be
significantly lower than the other two groups. We controlled for many
variables, such as socioeconomic status and the relationship between the parent
and child, but nothing stands out why this is. So we'd like to take a closer
look at individual specifics - did parents smoke in front of children or were
children exposed to their efforts to quit? More than half of these parents quit
smoking, and some of these parents quit smoking when their children were young,
so how did that influence their children?"
While the influence of parents'
smoking history is attention grabbing, Vuolo said it is important to not
overlook the sibling effect.
An older sibling who smokes is 15
times more likely to occur in the heavy smoking households than the non-smoking
households, and a younger sibling is six times more likely to smoke if they
have an older sibling who smokes.
"In fact, if there was a
sibling present in the light smoking or the early-onset smoking environment the
effect still holds; it's just that it's much more likely to happen in the heavy
smoking households," Vuolo said.
Vuolo plans to continue looking
at this topic as well as similar parental influences in alcohol use.
"One aspect to keep in mind
is that other research shows that heavy smokers are more likely to have
children at younger ages, so they may be overrepresented in this population
because they have teenagers at age 38," Vuolo said. "If we did the
same analysis 10 years from now, when the non-smokers' children are more likely
to be teenagers, what would we see?"
Hi girls!
ResponderEliminarThis article covers a very current topic. Smoking is a risk factor for health and I think, even though the population is becoming more aware of its effects, there are many things to get yet.
The author affirms that parents have a lot of influence about the smoking habit of their children. This is logical; children learn by watching adults around them, so if these adults say them that they shouldn’t smoke, but sometimes they smoke, the children receive contradictory information. When this occurs, the non-verbal information has more importance than verbal message, that is to say, the child retain the image of their parents smoking instead of the advice “you shouldn’t smoke”.
Every time there are more campaigns about the negative effects of smoking to try to reduce the number of smokers but, in my opinion, these campaigns should focus on reducing the number of new smokers. How to do it? Some ideas come to my mind now (talks in schools and high schools, information posters, advertisements…) but I agree with the article’s author and the most important thing for me, should be made aware parents about their duty of educate their children about health habits (smoking habit, diet, exercise…) and to be an example for them.
Thanks Danae for your publication!
Hi girls!!
ResponderEliminarThere are a lot of things to say about this topic. It involves health of smokers, and also of their children.
Smoking is a very bad habit,and in my opinion everyone know it.
Behind the smoking habit, there are a lot of things that make you smoke or not.
In my opinion education, mood, capacity of self desicion, bad things in live... can make you smoke or not in a moment of your live.
On the one hand, I think partents shouldn't smoke in frontof their children, even if they smoke normally. the children may know that his or her parents smokes, but they don't have to see it, un order not only to recive contradictory information ( as Bea said), but also to be protected from breathing the contaminated air. ( passive smokers).
In the other hand, there are a lot of inluence from their friends, and even of the parents don't smoke and have been doing a correct prevention and education to they children, they may smoketo be cool, to fit, or just to have fun.
Teenagers, don't really know what they want, and sometimes they act as some of their group. parents, here have to be comprensible, and reasure thier children.
From my poit of view, there are more thinks that can influence at this bad habit, but, children who have seen their parents smoking, can become easier smokers, than the children who have had non smokers parents.
I'm sure that this influence of parents on thier childrens, can be seen in every habit, even good or bad. So certainly we as doctors, should act giving information and education to the parents, in order that they, colud do it better with their children in all risck activities.
do you agree?
have fun! Neus :D
Hello everyone!
ResponderEliminarI like this article because it is a topic that everyone is always talking about: Smoking. The smoking ban includes no smoking in public places, not advertise cigarette brands, etc. However, is it enough for the children to see smoking as something really bad for their health?
The answer, as this article says, it is not. The main influence of children is their direct environment, that is, their parents and older siblings. If children see them smoking, although they say it is something bad, will not see it as such, because as my partner Bea says, is giving children contradictory information. The key is education, yes, but also the role models the children see.
Therefore, the solution is not only to educate children but also educate consciences.
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ResponderEliminarGood afternoon!
ResponderEliminarThis article shows how parents can bring their children to smoke. As all you have said, sometimes it’s not sufficient banning to smoke in public places or putting some unsightly pictures on the snuff package because the education of the children is learnt about their parents and about they can see from them.
Moreover, although nowadays there are more people aware about the side effects of smoking tobacco, there still are a lot of people who consider it a way to be integrated in society, and they continue smoking. And what is more important, they continue influencing their children.
However, in my opinion those with more power in front of children are their older brothers. Usually kids admire them and they want to follow their steps in the future. That happens because the brothers are the youngest people they have nearer at home. They also have authority to them, for example, sometimes the old brothers take care of their younger ones while their parents are at work, so their figure is an important one. When an old brother get into smoke, their younger one think this is a good way to being like him and he associate smoking to his brother, so he consider a correct activity.
Finally, in my opinion, we should continue fighting with this cause because I think we can achieve the eradication of tobacco.
Hi!
ResponderEliminarThis article I think that it is very interesting because smoke is a factor that significantly affects health. At present, the number of people who smoke is increasing especially in adolescents.
I think the fact that a teen start smoking is influenced by several factors, some of them are described in this article.
Firstly, this article appoints the influence of parents who smoke about the smoking habits of their children. I really agree with this because parents are a great reference for them. But what about non-smokers whose children smoke? In this case, other factors influence such as the group of friends and the social environment in which they are. In addition I also think that if your big brother smoke you have a lot more probably to smoke, because your big brother
Above all, I think we as future doctors should think as to prevent these attitudes. For example, doing talks in schools and anti-smoking campaigns. Because prevention is the best implemente for a good health.
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ResponderEliminarHello girls!
ResponderEliminarI´ve seen all of you are agree regarding the existing risk that involves children smoke beginning. As the article and most of you have said, parents who smoke are a big influence on their children.
A known sentence says “like father like son”, but bigger brothers have more control still. I think this is like that because the elder brother isn´t as old as parents are in such a way they are more focused on people who are nearer to them as age is concerned and parents are a look far reference. Another important thing is the fact of smoking in a son presence. Is understandable young people don´t pay attention to their parents if they advise them not to smoke but in another way they do it.
A radical solution to finish with smoke habits would be stop selling tobacco but health professional can´t count on that. We have seen in last time how laws have been reformed in order to forbid smoking in most places (bars, restaurants, public spaces…), but it seems impossible we can see sometime smoking habits disappear of our society.
Considering that, the only thing we can do is to advice all people, specially adolescents, the risks of smoking entail, and to persuade the older smokers, above all parents, how to act in front of population who are in risk.
Hi girls!
ResponderEliminarFrom my point of view, there are a lot of thinks that can influence children to start smoking: Friends, style, puberty... but there is no doubt that one of the most important factors is if they have seen their parents smoking or not.
I don't know if you remember that some years ago there was an advert on TV which showed us how children imitate their parents in everything they did. For that reason, I think parents shouldn't smoke in front of their children: because in a future, children will imitate them, but also, as Neus has said, because if parents smoke in front of their children, they are damaging their children's health: Children are passive smokers.
To conclude, I would like to say that the best for everyone's health would be not to smoke. But if parents are smokers, please... Don't do that in front of your children.
Thanks!
Hi!
ResponderEliminarSmoking is a great topic and it can be analyzed from differents points of view.I think that all comments are done by smorkers and non-somkers students,it means that differents opinions are exposed on the post.
All of us know that smoking is unhealthy but we smoke,so what happens? We know that something is bad, we know that we´ll have problems in the future and we waste our money so which reason dirve us to start smoking?
In the majority of cases,teenagers start to smoke because they feel that they are adults and after that nicottine does his effect because the tobacco is a legal drug.
And why is the tobacco a legal drug,as the same as the alcohol?Because govermments earn too much money if those products are sold in our countries.And it´s true the legal age for consuming tobacco are 18 years old but we´re going to be realist we can buy tobacco with 17 or even 16 years old.Parents play an importamt role here,if we don´t want that our daughter or son smokes we can´t smoke or at least trying to be respectful and smoke in the terrace (open spaces at home).
The point is that smoker parents ,including 5 groups :non-smokers, heavy smokers, light smokers or those who had quit, and late-onset smokers who didn't start smoking until early adulthood ,have more possiblilities of smokers children.
Friends can be a reason too,if all your friends smoke you´ll try it.Finally you will decide what to do but there are more things that are driving you to buy packet.
In summary,it´s needed to prevent that teenagers smoke.When you´re adult you can decide what is better for you but with 16 or 17 years old not,And if you start to smoke soon you´ll have problems because is an addictive drug.