December 11, 2024 by
Katelyn Queen, PhD
In a new publication from Tyler Erath, PhD, research indicates that adolescent smoking risk increases corresponding to the cumulative number of psychosocial and health risks experienced in their cumulative-risk model.
Tyler Erath, PhD
Approximately 88% of adults who smoke initiated smoking as adolescents, indicating a critical need to address adolescent cigarette smoking. Prevention and treatment efforts have resulted in record-setting reductions in adolescent smoking. However, less is known about whether these reductions have occurred across all populations or whether there are disparities in adolescent smoking prevalence among vulnerable and/or at-risk populations.
Now, new research from Tyler Erath, PhD, Fang Fang Chen, PhD, and Stephen Higgins, PhD, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, indicates that adolescent smoking risk increases corresponding to the cumulative number of psychosocial and health risks experienced in their cumulative-risk model.
To evaluate the impact of cumulative risk factors on past-month and daily smoking, the researchers assessed smoking prevalence over an 18-year period among 244,519 adolescents aged 12-17 in relation to their cumulative risk experienced. They found that smoking significantly decreased across all cumulative-risk groups over time but not equitably. Adolescents with high cumulative risk had past-month smoking odds 46 times greater than those in the low-risk group. For daily smoking, the odds for a high cumulative-risk adolescent were 97 times greater than for an adolescent with low cumulative risk. In addition, these disparities were found to be widening over time as overall smoking prevalence has decreased, with the least proportional decline in smoking occurring in adolescents with greater cumulative risk.
In this publication, Erath and colleagues highlight the utility of a cumulative-risk model in predicting smoking prevalence in adolescents, underscoring that these risks often co-occur. These results indicate the need to prioritize treatment and preventions efforts in populations with higher cumulative-risk burden. They plan to continue this line of research with future work investigating whether a cumulative-risk model predicts other substance use outcomes including adolescent e-cigarette use.
This work was supported by the Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS) award U54DA036114 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Food and Drug Administration; National Institute of General Medical Sciences Center of Biomedical Research Excellence Award P30GM149331; and National Institute on Drug Abuse Institutional Training Award T32DA007242.
To learn more, read the full publication here.
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