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Tob Control 2009;18:245-248 doi:10.1136/tc.2008.025478
  • Brief report

Impact of parental home smoking policies on policy choices of independently living young adults

  1. A B Albers1,
  2. L Biener2,
  3. M Siegel1,
  4. D M Cheng3,
  5. N A Rigotti4
  1. 1
    Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  2. 2
    Center for Survey Research, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  3. 3
    Biostatistics Department, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  4. 4
    General Medicine Division and Tobacco Research and Treatment Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  1. Dr Alison B Albers, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Crosstown Center, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, USA; aalbers{at}bu.edu
  • Received 18 March 2008
  • Accepted 7 January 2009
  • Published Online First 23 January 2009

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether adolescents living in parental homes where smoking is banned are more likely to move into smoke-free living quarters when they leave home.

Methods: We analysed data on 693 youths from a 4-year, three-wave prospective study of a representative sample of Massachusetts adolescents (aged 12–17). All youths resided in independent living quarters at follow-up. The primary outcome was presence of a smoking ban in the living quarters at follow-up. The primary predictor was presence of a household smoking ban in the parental home, assessed 2 years before the outcome. Generalised linear mixed effects models examined the effect of a parental household smoking ban on the odds of moving into smoke-free living quarters at follow-up overall and stratified by smoking status at follow-up.

Results: Youths leaving home had much higher odds of moving to smoke-free living quarters if their parental household had had a smoking ban (odds ratio (OR) = 12.70, 95% CI, 6.19 to 26.04). Other independent predictors included moving into a school or college residence (OR = 3.88, 95% CI 1.87 to 8.05), and not living with smokers at follow-up (OR = 3.91, 95% CI 1.93 to 7.92).

Conclusions: A household smoking ban in the parental home appears to lead youths to prefer smoke-free living quarters once they leave home.

Footnotes

  • Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI) and the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) State and Community Tobacco Control Interventions Research Grant Program (CA86257). FAMRI and NCI were not directly involved in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of this brief report; or in the decision to submit this brief for publication.

  • Competing interests: None.

  • Ethics approval: This study was approved by the institutional review boards of the University of Massachusetts at Boston (survey administration and data collection site) and the Boston University Medical Center (data analysis site for the study described in this brief report).

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