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Objective-Adolescence is an important period of risk for the development of lifelong smoking behaviors. Compelling, although inconsistent, evidence suggests a relation between parental smoking and the risk of smoking initiation during adolescence. This study investigates unresolved issues concerning the strength and nature of the association between parent smoking and offspring smoking initiation.Methods-We enrolled 564 adolescents aged 12-17, along with one of their parents, into the New England Family Study between [2001][2002][2003][2004]. Lifetime smoking histories were obtained from parents and their adolescent offspring. Discrete-time survival analysis was used to investigate the influence of parental smoking histories on the risk of adolescent smoking initiation.Results-Parental smoking was associated with a significantly higher risk of smoking initiation in adolescent offspring (odds ratio=2.81, 95% CI=1.78, 4.41). In addition, the likelihood of offspring smoking initiation increased with the number of smoking parents and the duration of exposure to parental smoking, suggesting a dose-response relation between parental smoking and offspring smoking. Offspring of parents who had quit smoking were no more likely to smoke than offspring of parents who had never smoked. The effects of parental smoking on offspring initiation differed by sex (with a stronger effect of father's smoking on boys than girls), developmental period (with a stronger effect of parental smoking before the adolescent was age 13 than afterwards), and residence of parents (with effects of father's smoking being dependent on living in the same household as the adolescent). Parental smoking was also associated with stronger negative reactions to adolescents' first cigarette, a potential marker of the risk of progression to higher levels of use.Conclusions-Parental smoking is an important source of vulnerability to smoking initiation among adolescents, and parental smoking cessation might attenuate this vulnerability. KeywordsSmoking; adolescents; parent-offspring transmissionMost adult smokers began smoking during adolescence; 1-3 preventing adolescent smoking initiation is therefore important for reducing the public health burden of smoking-related illnesses over the life course. There is accumulating evidence that parental smoking increases the risk for adolescent smoking initiation; 4-19 however, unresolved issues persist concerning the strength and nature of the association between parent smoking and initiation of smoking in offspring. 20 For example, while parental smoking and parental nicotine dependence have each been linked with an increased risk of offspring smoking, 21,22 few studies of intergenerational transmission have addressed their comparative effects. Evidence from one such study suggests that the effect of maternal smoking on offspring smoking is largely irrespective of maternal nicotine dependence. 18Prior evidence of a dose-response relationship between parental smoking and offspring initiation is also mixed. In...

College student networks may be good targets for health-related prevention programs. Programs that use close-proximity peers to influence the behavior of others might be more effective with substance use as the target behavior than exercise.

Ethnic/racial minorities are obtaining lung resection in lower volume hospitals and are more likely to die in hospital. Hospital volume is associated with higher mortality, but health insurance, segregation, and number of surgical hospitals within a county do not account for observed disparities.

ABSTRACT. Objective: Although there is a clear association between early use of alcohol and short-and long-term adverse outcomes, it is unclear whether consumption of minor amounts of alcohol (less than a full drink) at a young age is prognostic of risk behaviors in later adolescence. Method: Data were taken from 561 students enrolled in an ongoing prospective web-based study on alcohol initiation and progression (55% female; 25% White non-Hispanic). Based on a combination of monthly and semiannual surveys, we coded whether participants sipped alcohol before sixth grade and examined associations between early sipping and alcohol consumption by fall of ninth grade, as well as other indices of problem behavior. Participants also reported on the context of the first sipping event. Results: The prevalence of sipping alcohol by fall of sixth grade was 29.5%. Most participants indicated that their first sip took place at their own home, and the primary source of alcohol was an adult, usually a parent. Youth who sipped alcohol by sixth grade had significantly greater odds of consuming a full drink, getting drunk, and drinking heavily by ninth grade than nonsippers. These associations held even when we controlled for temperamental, behavioral, and environmental factors that contribute to proneness for problem behavior, which suggests that sipping is not simply a marker of underlying risk. Conclusions: Our findings that early sipping is associated with elevated odds of risky behaviors at high school entry dispute the idea of sipping as a protective factor. Offering even just a sip of alcohol may undermine messages about the unacceptability of alcohol consumption for youth. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 76, 212-221, 2015)

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Health insurance coverage was associated with overall ED utilization, repeat ED utilization, and EDR. Demographic characteristics, including sex, age, income, and race/ethnicity were important predictors of ED utilization and reliance.

These results provide the most comprehensive depiction to date of interrelations among personality, psychopathology, and smoking and suggest an important role of personality in smoking that is not redundant with or conditional upon lifetime psychopathology.