Parental smoking and smoking behavior in asthmatic and nonasthmatic adolescents

Smoking may have serious consequences for asthmatics. Nevertheless, studies have shown that smoking behavior among asthmatics is similar to or even higher than that of nonasthmatics. Since the relationship between parental smoking and child smoking is well established, this study examined whether the association between parental and child smoking behavior is similar for asthmatic and nonasthmatic adolescents. The impact of parental smoking history was also explored.

A cross-sectional sample of 10,087 Dutch adolescents was used to assess the prevalence of asthma and smoking behavior. Moreover, respondents had to report whether one of their parents currently smoked, had stopped, or had never smoked. In case a parent was a former smoker, the respondent had to report his or her own age at the moment that the parent stopped smoking.

Logistic regression analyses showed that, compared with nonasthmatic adolescents, asthmatic adolescents were more likely to have smoking parents. Furthermore, similar associations were found between parental smoking and adolescent smoking among asthmatic and nonasthmatic adolescents. The time at which maternal smoking ceased was associated with a decreased likelihood for ever smoking for both asthmatic and nonasthmatic adolescents.

Asthmatic adolescents need to become more aware of the health risks of smoking. Therefore, tailor-made antismoking campaigns are needed at schools to reduce misconceptions among asthmatic adolescents about the risks of smoking. In addition, a personal intervention approach aimed particularly at smoking parents of an asthmatic child, may make them aware of the consequences for their offspring and help them to stop smoking.