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Comparative Study
. 2009 Aug;104(8):1411-9.
doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02640.x.

Adult versus adolescent onset of smoking: how are mood disorders and other risk factors involved?

Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross  1 , Karin Landolt, Jules Angst, Alex Gamma, Kathleen R Merikangas, Felix Gutzwiller, Wulf Rössler
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Adult versus adolescent onset of smoking: how are mood disorders and other risk factors involved?

Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross et al. Addiction. 2009 Aug.

Abstract

Aims: To examine the strength of association between smoking and mood disorders and the association between smoking and its traditional risk factors, comparing those who started smoking in adolescence with those who started smoking in early adulthood.

Design and participants: The analyses relied on prospective data from the Zurich Study. This longitudinal community study started in 1979 with a stratified sample of 591 participants aged 20/21 years, weighted towards those with mental disorders. Follow-up interviews were conducted at ages 23, 28, 30, 35 and 41.

Measurements: In this analysis the adult versus adolescent onset of smoking was regressed on the cumulative prevalence of mood disorders, personality characteristics measured by the Freiburg Personality Inventory, common risk factors such as parental smoking, conduct and school problems, troubles with the family and basic socio-demographic variables (sex, education).

Findings: In the Zurich Study cohort we found that 61.6% were former or current smokers, of whom 87% started smoking before the age of 20 and 13% after the age of 20. Adolescent onset of smoking was associated strongly with later major depression, dysthymia or bipolar disorders and, furthermore, with parental smoking, extroverted personality and discipline problems and rebelliousness in youth. However, only depression and dysthymia were associated with adult onset smoking and other risk factors associated with smoking were not so associated in this group.

Conclusions: Correlates of smoking onset in adolescence are mainly not applicable to the onset of smoking in young adulthood. Smoking onset beyond adolescence is an open research issue.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentages of adolescent onset (up to age 20) smokers, adult onset (after age 20) smokers and never-smokers in relation to mood disorders and other mental disorders over 20 years in young adulthood; population prevalence estimates after offsetting the sample stratification. ‘Other diagnoses’ included any case with neurasthenia, general anxiety disorder, simple phobia, social phobia, agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, alcohol dependence, opioids and other substances dependence or bulimia
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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