This particular topic has been studied before and even commented on by me. But it bears repeating, especially when a great study comes out and tells us something we all suspected in the first place. The question is this, if people who have greater college education smoke less, then how far back can we trace this phenomona? In other words, do lower achievers in say, high school, middle school or even elementary school, have a greater propensity to end up a smoker?
I love the journal Addiction. They publish some really unique studies on nicotine addiction. The researchers here have really hit a home run, or at least I think so. They evaluated 741 kids with absolutely no history of smoking in the 7th grade, this is in Canada. They followed these kids for 4 years up through grade 10. Here's what they found.
Based on the grade point average (GPA) of the students, three academic achievement levels or what they call trajectories were identified: high achievers (HA), average achievers (AA) and unstable low achievers (ULA). ULA made up about 12% of the total studied population. Within these three groups were identified different rates of smoking initiation.
HA - 7.1% initiation
AA - 15.1% initiation
ULA - 49.1% initiation
Lets see if we can identify a trend. Hum, it's on the tip of my tongue. Pretty startling isn't it. In addition, they found that ULA students who had involved and educated parents were less likely to initiate smoking.
It looks as if apathy is the largest contributor to smoking initiation. Here comes my sweeping, broad stroked statement - kids who aren't taught to care about their education by their parents seem doomed to repeat their parents' mistakes. Now granted, some of these kids have very difficult family situations, but I'm sure those exist in all the populations studied.
The point is this, education seems to matter, especially when it comes to smoking. The less educated smoke more. Those identified early in adolescence as low achievers will end up smoking more. This is great to know because that means we can intervene in this time of their life and potentially break the cycle of addiction before it starts. Nicotine and the brain do not mix, especially at such a young age. But it seems we can do something about it. So talk to your kids before he/she gets to 7th grade about how smoking is stupid and how it kills people. We do it here all the time and my kids are totally grossed out by smoking and think it's the worst thing ever.
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
High School Weekend Binges
When I was in high school, I was pretty busy during the week. Lots of homework and activities to do. But my weekends were pretty free. I'd hang out with my friends, go to the movies and things like that. I wasn't a bad kid and I didn't have bad friends. We were all pretty good natured, christian kids who just liked to have fun and be around each other. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I really even went to any of the weekend parties that I had heard so much about in class on Mondays.
Apparently, these parties went on at the same house almost every Saturday night. So, my buds and I started going to them. There we saw lots of things which we would have been better off not seeing. People were "making out", drinking, and smoking cigarettes. No drugs thankfully, (except alcohol), but just about everything else.
I read an article recently in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The authors published an article that I could have written in high school as part of my language arts class. In this paper, "the researchers" tell us that kids don't usually smoke much during the week, but do most of it on the weekends. Yet one more ground shaking article. Do we really need research to tell us this? I think most of us knew this already. The scientists, and I use this term loosely, want to communicate to us that we should frame youth quit smoking strategies in this weekend binge picture. Well, thanks for sharing.
Listen, if I were talking to high school kids about quitting, the weekend binge phenomona would not be the cornerstone of my plan. But I guess this info is important to know, officially that is. So if you are a parent, remember that your kids are going to go to weekend parties. There, they'll see stuff that you saw when you went to weekend parties. Tell them what to stay away from. Tell them why to stay away from it. Then take them out for some ice cream and let them know it's okay to still be and act like a kid.
Apparently, these parties went on at the same house almost every Saturday night. So, my buds and I started going to them. There we saw lots of things which we would have been better off not seeing. People were "making out", drinking, and smoking cigarettes. No drugs thankfully, (except alcohol), but just about everything else.
I read an article recently in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The authors published an article that I could have written in high school as part of my language arts class. In this paper, "the researchers" tell us that kids don't usually smoke much during the week, but do most of it on the weekends. Yet one more ground shaking article. Do we really need research to tell us this? I think most of us knew this already. The scientists, and I use this term loosely, want to communicate to us that we should frame youth quit smoking strategies in this weekend binge picture. Well, thanks for sharing.
Listen, if I were talking to high school kids about quitting, the weekend binge phenomona would not be the cornerstone of my plan. But I guess this info is important to know, officially that is. So if you are a parent, remember that your kids are going to go to weekend parties. There, they'll see stuff that you saw when you went to weekend parties. Tell them what to stay away from. Tell them why to stay away from it. Then take them out for some ice cream and let them know it's okay to still be and act like a kid.
Hookah Use Among Youth
There is more evidence that hookah (water pipe) use is on the rise in America's youth. I've blogged about this before, except I took a more physiological approach. Today, there is a recent study that looks at just what it is that attracts the young people to this type of tobacco inhalation device.
I've long contended that hookah smoking just looks exotic and different to those of us in the West. It seems very "Indiana Jones"-like, if I may borrow a Hollywood icon as an example. There also seems to be this perception that hookah smoking is safer because the water is some how supposed to make it a healthier smoking experience. But as I blogged about before, that isn't the case.
The study we'll look at today is out of Nicotine & Tobacco Research by JR Smith and others and it's called "Determiants of Hookah Use among High School Students" - [2011 Mar 31 - Epub ahead of print]. The researchers looked at initiation, prevalence, cessation and psychosocial risk factors of hookah smoking among 689 students from 3 high schools in San Diego county.
They found that about 26% of the study population had participated in hookah smoking. Roughly 11% of the students were identified as previous hookah smokers and 10.3% described themselves as current hookah smokers. Hookah smoking was mostly a learned behavior with experiences being spread around among friends in 50% while 21% became interested because they saw a hookah lounge.
Once again, the students perceived the hookah smoking to be safer than regular cigarettes, but they also felt it was more socially acceptable that traditional cigarettes. Despite this fact, hookah users were also more likely to be currently smoking cigarettes, as well.
The researchers contention then, is that hookah lounges contribute to the problem of tobacco use in adolescents and should be evaluated in that light by principalities. They also conclude that hookah use is without question, on the rise in our youth. This is exacerbated by the lack of education about the hazards associated with hookah, that is, the perception that hookah use is safer than cigarettes.
Just another example of how we continue to fail our youth, both as parents, educators, health care practitioners and political leaders. We need to get the message out of the bottle and in front of our young people. Are we part of the problem or part of the solution?
I've long contended that hookah smoking just looks exotic and different to those of us in the West. It seems very "Indiana Jones"-like, if I may borrow a Hollywood icon as an example. There also seems to be this perception that hookah smoking is safer because the water is some how supposed to make it a healthier smoking experience. But as I blogged about before, that isn't the case.
The study we'll look at today is out of Nicotine & Tobacco Research by JR Smith and others and it's called "Determiants of Hookah Use among High School Students" - [2011 Mar 31 - Epub ahead of print]. The researchers looked at initiation, prevalence, cessation and psychosocial risk factors of hookah smoking among 689 students from 3 high schools in San Diego county.
They found that about 26% of the study population had participated in hookah smoking. Roughly 11% of the students were identified as previous hookah smokers and 10.3% described themselves as current hookah smokers. Hookah smoking was mostly a learned behavior with experiences being spread around among friends in 50% while 21% became interested because they saw a hookah lounge.
Once again, the students perceived the hookah smoking to be safer than regular cigarettes, but they also felt it was more socially acceptable that traditional cigarettes. Despite this fact, hookah users were also more likely to be currently smoking cigarettes, as well.
The researchers contention then, is that hookah lounges contribute to the problem of tobacco use in adolescents and should be evaluated in that light by principalities. They also conclude that hookah use is without question, on the rise in our youth. This is exacerbated by the lack of education about the hazards associated with hookah, that is, the perception that hookah use is safer than cigarettes.
Just another example of how we continue to fail our youth, both as parents, educators, health care practitioners and political leaders. We need to get the message out of the bottle and in front of our young people. Are we part of the problem or part of the solution?
Medical Degrees and Smoking Rates
If you read this blog very much, you know that smoking rates are much higher in those people with less education. Again, I'm not trying to be mean, it's just what the studies point out time and time again. But, does it make a difference what your major is in college? Do those going after a medical degree have lower smoking rates then, let's say, Western Civilization majors? How about those receiving medical assistant certification versus only having a GED?”
The International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (2011 Jan 19) will publish a study out of China that looked at this very question, called "Differences of Smoking Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Between Medical and Non-Medical Students". They found that medical students had lower rates of smoking than non-medical students. In fact, the upper class medical students had a much stronger attitude toward smoking than their non-med school counterparts.
The supposition of Han and others is quite simple. The more you learn in college about how devastating smoking is, the more you want to stay away from it.
What can we learn about this? Well, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to say that the more we dispell myths about smoking the better. We need to educate people at a relatively early age to stop the cycle found within the smoking culture today. Somewhere along the way, we need to break the chain. This study tells us that education is a great way to do that.
The International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (2011 Jan 19) will publish a study out of China that looked at this very question, called "Differences of Smoking Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Between Medical and Non-Medical Students". They found that medical students had lower rates of smoking than non-medical students. In fact, the upper class medical students had a much stronger attitude toward smoking than their non-med school counterparts.
The supposition of Han and others is quite simple. The more you learn in college about how devastating smoking is, the more you want to stay away from it.
What can we learn about this? Well, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to say that the more we dispell myths about smoking the better. We need to educate people at a relatively early age to stop the cycle found within the smoking culture today. Somewhere along the way, we need to break the chain. This study tells us that education is a great way to do that.
Smoking Prevention in Kids
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| Stupid Is As Stupid Does |
I remember watching television ads detailing the adverse effects of smoking. Those were great because I was incredibly impressionable and even though my dad smoked, I knew that I didn't want to follow in his footsteps. Except for some very artistic "Truth" commercials, I don't see a lot of public support for anti-smoking campaigns. It seems the stop smoking message is having a difficult time getting published on the American airways.
Interestingly, a study from the Netherlands published in Preventive Medicine, looked at what a public prevention program might look like and gives some insight into the success of such a program. They developed a program that targeted elementary students in 5th and 6th grade. These are ten and eleven year olds who are about to be placed into a junior high school atmosphere where all sorts of peer pressures and experimentations are really at work.
The intervention group received only three anti-smoking lessons in both 5th and 6th grade for a total of six lessons prior to advancing to 7th grade. They discovered the kids in the intervention group had a higher intention not to smoke and, in fact, started to smoke less often than the control group kids who did not receive the lessons. The smoking prevalence increased from 2.5% to 3.6% in the intervention group, whereas, the control group saw a jump from 3.2% to 6.5%.
Understand this is only after receiving 3 lessons in each grade prior to going on to secondary school. Imagine if they had received intensive reinforcement at home or on television. It appears that very little effort can provide large gains in helping children avoid taking that first experimental puff. Interestingly, the study found that girls had the greatest difference in smoking prevalency between the intervention and control group.
What does this mean for us? Well, I think it shows that a well placed conversation with your children over their elementary school days, can provide them with a great foundation for not smoking when they get to junior high or high school. So don't be shy about telling your kids to not smoke. Tell them how bad it is and what the potential consequences are when they're young. It seems they'll remember when their friends are telling them how great it is.
Academic Failure and Tobacco Use
There are lots of scientific studies out there to support the notion that the more poorly educated in the world are more likely to smoke. It seems the more education you have, the less likely you are to be a smoker. Therefore, it seemed only natural to research how smoking adolescents fair in school compared to their non-smoking counterparts.
The Journal of School Health published a study that looked at academic success (or failure) of 10 to 16 year old government school students in India. They defined academic failure as having to repeat the same grade level once or twice. The study included over 6,300 students between 2004 and 2006.
The researchers found a significantly greater failure rate amongs students who used tobacco versus those who were nonusers. Tobacco users included those who chewed tobacco and smoked cigarettes and/or bidis. So students who reported tobacco use in 2004 were much more likely to fail a grade by the year 2006, than those who did not use tobacco products.
This brings up the question: does smoking make you more likely to fail academically or do poor performing students just so happen to smoke? Very much a chicken or the egg argument, I know. But certainly a matter that needs further investigation. While we're thinking about this, ponder these smoking facts.
The Journal of School Health published a study that looked at academic success (or failure) of 10 to 16 year old government school students in India. They defined academic failure as having to repeat the same grade level once or twice. The study included over 6,300 students between 2004 and 2006.
The researchers found a significantly greater failure rate amongs students who used tobacco versus those who were nonusers. Tobacco users included those who chewed tobacco and smoked cigarettes and/or bidis. So students who reported tobacco use in 2004 were much more likely to fail a grade by the year 2006, than those who did not use tobacco products.
This brings up the question: does smoking make you more likely to fail academically or do poor performing students just so happen to smoke? Very much a chicken or the egg argument, I know. But certainly a matter that needs further investigation. While we're thinking about this, ponder these smoking facts.
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