Familial secondhand smoke: Tobacco use and adoption of smoke-free home and car rules among US parents

Abstract

Introduction Secondhand smoke (SHS) causes disease and death. We assessed US parents’ tobacco use and their attitudes towards smoking within private environments where children might be present. Methods A national sample of 44626 parents collectively reporting 83782 children aged 0–17 years was analyzed from the 2014–2015 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Unit of analyses was both parents and children. Among parents, we assessed tobacco use prevalence, smoke-free home rule adoption, and opposition to smoking in cars. Logistic regression was used to measure associations between smoke-free home rule adoption and parents’ cigarette smoking initiation (never smokers); quit attempts (current smokers); and sustained cessation (former smokers). Population counts of children living with a smoking parent were extrapolated from sampling weights. Results Of parents, 14.3% currently smoked combustible tobacco; approximately 9.7 million children lived with a smoking parent. While most parents opposed smoking in cars with children (95.0%), significantly fewer were opposed when a child was not specified as being present in the car (75.4%). Overall, 91.3% of parents had smoke-free home rules; this percentage was highest among parents of infants/ toddlers (92.3%) and lowest among parents of teens aged 14–17 years (89.0%; p<0.05). Presence of smoke-free home rules was associated negatively with smoking initiation among never smokers (AOR=0.21) and positively with quit attempts among current smokers (AOR=1.59) and sustained quitting among former smokers (AOR=1.67) (all p <0.05). Conclusions Parental smoking can expose children to SHS. Pediatricians can educate parents on the dangers of smoking around children, and the benefits of quitting.

Keywords

• secondhand smoke
• smoke-free home
• tobacco products