Global Health Asia-Pacific July 2020 July 2020 | Page 40
Medical News
The longer kids stay away from cigarettes,
the less likely they will smoke
Landmark study links the age of a child’s first cigarette with chances of getting hooked
The younger people are when they have their first
cigarette, the more likely they are to become
adult smokers, according to a new study that
has called for the minimum age for buying tobacco to
be raised internationally to 21.
The research, published in April in the Journal
of the American Heart Association, looked at the
smoking habits of more than 6,600 young people in
�inland, Australia, and the �nited �tates.
It found that adolescents who smoked the most,
along with children who started smoking at younger
ages, were more likely to be daily smokers in their 20s
and less likely to quit smoking by their 40s.
Even children who only tried a few cigarettes were
more likely to end up as a daily adult smoker.
Eight percent of those who first tried smoking at
18-19 years went on to be regular smokers in their
twenties. This figure rose to 33 percent among those
who first tried smoking between 15 and 17, while 48
percent of those whose first cigarettes were at 13 or
14 went on to become smokers. Half of those in the
6-12 age group smoked in their twenties.
Only 2.6 percent of participants who took up
smoking for the first time after their twenties smoked
in their forties. The frequency of smoking in childhood
and adolescence was found to be similar across all
three countries.
“As children mature through adolescence, they
may have developed a better ability to resist impulses
and to reject social pressures. These results strongly
support Tobacco 21, a movement to restrict all sales of
tobacco products to people under age 21,� wrote lead
author Dr David �acobs, �rofessor of �ublic Health at
the �niversity of Minnesota, in an accompanying note.
Although the study was conducted in developed
nations, the researchers believe that the results likely
apply more broadly.
Assessing the findings of the study for Global
Health Asia-�acific, Dr Colin Mendelsohn, an
associate professor at �ew �outh Wales �niversity’s
�chool of �ublic Health and Community Medicine,
said its clear message was that kids should not start
smoking at any age.
�We know that even one cigarette is a predictor for
what will happen later on. Still, kids will smoke and
many will go on to smoke,” he said. “The minimum age
of 21 is a really important strategy. A number of good
studies have shown it does reduce smoking rates. I
agree with the authors that it should be a priority.”
Though the study revealed important information
about childhood tobacco use, it omitted the role of
vaping in keeping children away from cigarettes.
�I think it’s an oversight. �moking rates are falling
faster than ever among young people in the �nited
States and Britain. The research suggests vaping
may be diverting people away from smoking, so we
think vaping is a gateway out of smoking,� said Dr
Mendelsohn.
�As more kids start vaping, far fewer are still
smoking, and that has accelerated in the last few
years. There’s always this talk about if kids start
vaping they’re going to become smokers. There’s no
evidence of that. What’s happening is that regular
vaping is almost entirely confined to kids who already
smoke.”
38 JULY 2020 GlobalHealthAndTravel.com