Cargando…

Beliefs About the Health Effects of Smoking Among Adults in the United States

The majority of U.S. adults believe that smoking is a cause of lung cancer, but research suggests that the percentage of adults who believe smoking causes other types of cancers and chronic disease is lower. This study examines the correlates of beliefs about several established health effects of sm...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mills, Sarah D., Wiesen, Christopher A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9150142/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33870757
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10901981211004136
_version_ 1784717361013587968
author Mills, Sarah D.
Wiesen, Christopher A.
author_facet Mills, Sarah D.
Wiesen, Christopher A.
author_sort Mills, Sarah D.
collection PubMed
description The majority of U.S. adults believe that smoking is a cause of lung cancer, but research suggests that the percentage of adults who believe smoking causes other types of cancers and chronic disease is lower. This study examines the correlates of beliefs about several established health effects of smoking in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Data for this study come from Wave 4 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study conducted from December 2016 to January 2018. Participants responded to questions assessing their beliefs about the health effects of smoking. Logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between beliefs about the health effects of smoking and sociodemographic characteristics (smoker status, age, sex, education, race/ethnicity), exposure to antitobacco campaigns, smokers’ health, and nicotine dependence. The percentage of U.S. adults who endorsed a health effect can be caused from smoking ranged from 56.4% for blindness to 97.4% for lung disease. Respondents who were older, less educated, current or former smokers, and had less exposure to antitobacco campaigns were generally less likely (p < .05) to endorse that an established health effect was caused by smoking. Smokers with lower nicotine dependence and worse health were generally more likely (p < .05) to endorse that an established health effect was caused by smoking. In summary, knowledge about the health effects of smoking varies across health conditions. Public health would benefit from campaigns targeting segments of the population with less knowledge about the health effects of smoking.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9150142
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher SAGE Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-91501422022-05-31 Beliefs About the Health Effects of Smoking Among Adults in the United States Mills, Sarah D. Wiesen, Christopher A. Health Educ Behav Tobacco Use The majority of U.S. adults believe that smoking is a cause of lung cancer, but research suggests that the percentage of adults who believe smoking causes other types of cancers and chronic disease is lower. This study examines the correlates of beliefs about several established health effects of smoking in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Data for this study come from Wave 4 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study conducted from December 2016 to January 2018. Participants responded to questions assessing their beliefs about the health effects of smoking. Logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between beliefs about the health effects of smoking and sociodemographic characteristics (smoker status, age, sex, education, race/ethnicity), exposure to antitobacco campaigns, smokers’ health, and nicotine dependence. The percentage of U.S. adults who endorsed a health effect can be caused from smoking ranged from 56.4% for blindness to 97.4% for lung disease. Respondents who were older, less educated, current or former smokers, and had less exposure to antitobacco campaigns were generally less likely (p < .05) to endorse that an established health effect was caused by smoking. Smokers with lower nicotine dependence and worse health were generally more likely (p < .05) to endorse that an established health effect was caused by smoking. In summary, knowledge about the health effects of smoking varies across health conditions. Public health would benefit from campaigns targeting segments of the population with less knowledge about the health effects of smoking. SAGE Publications 2021-04-17 2022-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9150142/ /pubmed/33870757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10901981211004136 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Tobacco Use
Mills, Sarah D.
Wiesen, Christopher A.
Beliefs About the Health Effects of Smoking Among Adults in the United States
title Beliefs About the Health Effects of Smoking Among Adults in the United States
title_full Beliefs About the Health Effects of Smoking Among Adults in the United States
title_fullStr Beliefs About the Health Effects of Smoking Among Adults in the United States
title_full_unstemmed Beliefs About the Health Effects of Smoking Among Adults in the United States
title_short Beliefs About the Health Effects of Smoking Among Adults in the United States
title_sort beliefs about the health effects of smoking among adults in the united states
topic Tobacco Use
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9150142/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33870757
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10901981211004136
work_keys_str_mv AT millssarahd beliefsaboutthehealtheffectsofsmokingamongadultsintheunitedstates
AT wiesenchristophera beliefsaboutthehealtheffectsofsmokingamongadultsintheunitedstates