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Nine-year prospective relationship between parental smoking cessation and children's daily smoking
Jonathan B Bricker1, Brian G Leroux, Arthur V Peterson
1Cancer Prevention Research Program, Division of Public Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA. jbricker@u.washington.edu
Aims:
The first prospective investigation of the extent to which parental smoking cessation predicts their children's daily smoking.
Design:
Parental smoking status was assessed when children were aged 8/9 years and children's smoking status was assessed at age 17/18 years.
Setting:
Twenty Washington State school districts in the control group of the Hutchinson Smoking Prevention Project.
Participants And Measurements:
Questionnaire data were gathered on 3012 children (49% female and 91% Caucasian) and both of their parents in a cohort with a 95% retention rate.
Findings:
When both parents quit smoking, children's odds of daily smoking were reduced by 39% (95% CI = 15%,56%) compared to when both parents were current smokers.Furthermore, when both parents never smoked then children's odds of daily smoking were reduced by 71% (95% CI = 62%,78%).
Conclusions:
Parental smoking cessation is associated with reduced risk of their children's daily smoking. Parents who quit still place children at substantially higher risk compared to parents who never smoked.