"It's Worse to Breathe It Than to Smoke It": Secondhand Smoke Beliefs in a Group of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States.

Thomas A Arcury,Grisel Trejo,Sara A Quandt,Timothy D Howard,Joanne C Sandberg,Edward H Ip,Dakysha Moore

doi:10.3390/ijerph17228630

Abstract

This analysis describes beliefs about secondhand smoke and its health effects held by Mexican and Central American immigrants in North Carolina. Data from 60 semistructured, in-depth interviews were subjected to saliency analysis. Participant discussions of secondhand smoke centered on four domains: (1) familiarity and definition of secondhand smoke, (2) potency of secondhand smoke, (3) general health effects of secondhand smoke, and (4) child health effects of secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke was generally believed to be more harmful than primary smoke. Mechanisms for the potency and health effects of secondhand smoke involved the smell of secondhand smoke, secondhand smoke being an infection and affecting the immune system, and personal strength being protective of secondhand smoke. Understanding these health beliefs informs a framework for further health education and intervention to reduce smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in this vulnerable population.

Highlights

Secondhand smoke is a medical and public health concern because exposure increases the risk for respiratory diseases, coronary heart diseases, cancer, and stroke [1,2,3].Secondhand smoke exposure is of particular concern for those living in low-income and minority communities [4,5,6]
Our results for Latinx immigrants are similar to other studies based on qualitative analysis [9,13,14,15] that report that Latinx participants know what secondhand smoke is and that secondhand smoke is harmful
Mexican and Central American immigrants are generally aware of secondhand smoke and its health effects

Summary

Introduction

Secondhand smoke (environmental tobacco smoke) is a medical and public health concern because exposure increases the risk for respiratory diseases, coronary heart diseases, cancer, and stroke [1,2,3]. Secondhand smoke exposure is of particular concern for those living in low-income and minority communities [4,5,6]. Greater residential density, and less control on non-smoking enforcement increase the risk of secondhand smoke exposure in these communities [7,8,9]. Black Americans report greater secondhand smoke exposure than do Whites, Asians, or Latinos [6,10,11]. Nearly one-quarter (23.9%) of Mexican American nonsmokers were exposed to secondhand smoke [2]. Public Health 2020, 17, 8630; doi:10.3390/ijerph17228630 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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