Abstract
Aims: Second hand smoke (SHS) exposure is increasingly recognized as a major public health concern. Assessing adolescents’ motivational level to avoid SHS is vital to promote and reinforce reductions in SHS exposure. Methods: A brief measure based on the Stage of Change model was developed to characterize adolescents’ behavior related to reducing SHS exposure and used to identify potential determinants of SHS stage of change. The sample consisted of 1172 adolescents aged 13 to 15 years who participated in an internet-based cohort study of youth in British Columbia, Canada. Results: Sixty-six percent of the adolescents reported they had consistently made efforts to reduce exposure to SHS for more than 6 months, while 19% did not intend to reduce their exposure to SHS in the next 6 months. Adolescents’ SHS stage of change significantly differed by ethnicity, whether they had tried cigarettes, amount of tobacco smoked in their lifetime, parental and peer smoking statuses, past months’ exposure to SHS, frequent smoking in the home, and home smoking restrictions (all p exposure. Conclusion: This brief measure based on the Stage of Change model can be used in future studies to characterize adolescents’ behavior around SHS. Adolescents who smoke or have parents and/or friends who smoke appear to be a population that could benefit from stage-matched interventions designed to raise awareness of the risks associated with SHS for smokers and non-smokers, and ultimately reduce SHS exposure.
Highlights
Second hand smoke (SHS) exposure is increasingly recognized as a vital public health concern in Canada, where non-smoking youth aged 12 to 19 experience the most SHS exposure [1]
The aim of this study was to: 1) develop a brief measure of risk reduction behavior related to SHS based on the Stage of Change model; 2) use this measure to characterize adolescents’ behavior related to SHS exposure; and 3) identify potential determinants of SHS stage of change, with a focus on the impact of tobacco exposure
Among the BASUS sample of adolescents who participated in the online questionnaire in the fall 2010 (n = 1577), 74% (n = 1172) completed the measure that assessed their stage of change related to reducing exposure to SHS; the 405 students who did not complete our measure were dropped from analyses
Summary
Second hand smoke (SHS) exposure is increasingly recognized as a vital public health concern in Canada, where non-smoking youth aged 12 to 19 experience the most SHS exposure [1]. Recent evidence indicates a causal link between long-term regular exposure to SHS and premenopausal breast cancer [2]. Extensive evidence indicates that SHS exposure during childhood is associated with the development and exacerbation of asthma and other respiratory illnesses [3], reduced lung function [4], ear infections [5], cardiovascular effects [6], sleep difficulties [7], behavior problems [8], and increased risk of several cancers [9]. To facilitate research on adolescents’ behavior to reduce risks associated with exposure to SHS we used Prochaska’s Stage of Change model [10] to create a brief measure that can be used to characterize adolescents’ risk reduction behavior related to SHS.
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