[Does second-hand smoking get children's and adolescents' quality of life worse?]

The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between second-hand smoking and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents (HRQL). Data was obtained through KIDSCREEN survey conducted in Poland in 2003. The subsample of 1045 school-children aged 10-16 yrs was selected. HRQL was measured by KIDSCREEN-27 child version indexed in five domains. Results showed that 48.4% of school-children lives with at least one parent smoking at all, and 15.5% with both parents smoking every day. About 80% of smoking parents reported smoking in the presence of child, while 44% at least often. Overall, 22% of adolescents at this age are at high risk of second-hand smoking because of parental behaviors. Children having parents smoking on the regular basis reported lower quality of life, especially in the domain describing family and school environment. Multivariate linear regression models indicated that smoking by mother is the most important predictor of low HRQL. Parental smoking could be recognized as social determinant of low HRQL, in some domains even more evident than lower parental education level.