Parental Beliefs on the Harmfull Effects of Third Hand Smoke: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Abstract Background Third-hand smoke (THS); occurs as a result of the reaction of tobacco smoke residues left on furnitures or on smokers with the chemical substances in the environment. Children are a risky group in terms of THS exposure because they spend a lot of time at home and touch surfaces frequently. The aim is to systematically compile and meta-analyze studies in which parents' beliefs that THS are harmful are evaluated. Methods Pubmed, Scpous and Web of Science databases were scanned until April 6, 2021. Selective keywords were ‘third-hand smoke', ‘third hand smoke', ‘thirdhand smoke' and ‘belief'. Articles that were found to be suitable for the purpose of the study were also included by manually searching the references of the included articles. The PRISMA checklist was followed in the study. Studies that could not be clearly differentiated from THS from second-hand tobacco smoke and were not performed in parents were excluded. Duplicates were eliminated and the remaining article abstracts were read double-blind. Study data were entered into the OpenMeta [Analyst] program. Fixed effects model in the presence of homogeneous groups and random effects model in the presence of heterogeneous groups were used. Results As a result of the first literature search, 302 articles were reached. A total of 7 studies were included in the meta-analysis. As a result of the analysis, 4274 (57.3%, 95% CI 51.5-63.2) of 7632 parents were smoking and 5864 (76.3%, 95 CI 64.3-88.4) believed THS harms the health of children. In 4 studies, 2037 of 3581 parents (45.2%, 95% CI 24.2-66.1) were implementing a smoking ban at home. In 3 studies, the belief that THS is harmful to child health was higher in the presence of smoking ban at home (OR: 2.03, 95% GA 1.45-2.85, p < 0.001). Conclusions The frequency of smoking and smoking at home is high in parents. One in four parents does not believe THS is harmful to children's health. Key messages In order to protect children from THS harms, it is not enough just to not smoke in the house, and smoking should be evoided everywhere. Educational interventions should be planned to convince parents about the harmful effects of THS on child health.