Survey Shows Teens Will Stop Smoking if Harming OthersDecember 7, 2000
Research Summary
A survey of 600 teens found that most would stop smoking if convinced it could harm those around them, HealthScout reported Dec. 5."The kids were more concerned about the harmful effects of secondhand smoke than they were concerned about themselves," said Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the telephone survey of 600 teenagers.
According to the survey, the belief that secondhand smoke could harm others more than doubled the odds that young smokers were planning to stop their habit in 30 days or already had quit. "Like adults, kids are concerned about the effects of smoking on others," said Glantz. "One of the big mistakes that anti-smoking people have made is that they've treated kids differently from adults."
On the other hand, the survey revealed that concern about their own health was not enough to get young people to quit smoking.
According to the American Heart Association, about 4 million teenagers smoke, with more than 3,000 teens under the age of 18 becoming daily smokers every day.
The survey was based on telephone responses from 300 smokers and 300 non-smokers between the ages of 14 and 22.
The report is published appear in the December issue of Pediatrics.
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