Parents can help teens avoid smoking

Parents can dissuade their children from smoking by not smoking themselves and not allowing their children to smoke at home, Swedish researchers said.

The study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, found that adolescents respond positively to their parents’ attitudes toward smoking.

Study leader Maria Nilsson of Umea University in Sweden utilized statistics obtained from three national surveys conducted by The National Board for Health and Welfare and The Swedish National Institute of Public Health in 1987, 1994 and 2003. The surveys explored the attitudes, beliefs and tobacco use of teenagers across Sweden.

Responses were obtained from young people ages 13, 15 and 17, with 1,500 adolescents in each age group. A total of 13,500 adolescents were surveyed.

The researchers said teens are more positive today toward their parents’ attempts to discourage them from smoking, regardless of whether or not they smoked, than in the past.

Levels of smoking amongst participants were stable at 8 percent in 1987 and 1994, but halved in 2003. The decrease in the proportion of teenagers smoking is thought to result from a number of factors, including changes in legislation and the decreasing social acceptability of smoking, Nilsson said.