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. 2019 Dec;64(9):1335-1344.
doi: 10.1007/s00038-019-01288-z. Epub 2019 Sep 5.

The visibility of smoking in Europe and its relationship with youth's positive beliefs about smoking

Naomi A Lagerweij  1   2 , Mirte A G Kuipers  3 , Michael Schreuders  3 , Adeline Grard  4 , Martin Mlinarić  5 , Matthias Richter  5 , Teresa Leão  6 , Jaana M Kinnunen  7 , Anton E Kunst  3
Affiliations

The visibility of smoking in Europe and its relationship with youth's positive beliefs about smoking

Naomi A Lagerweij et al. Int J Public Health. 2019 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine adolescent-reported visibility of smoking in different public and private spaces in Europe and associations between smoking visibility and beliefs about the benefits of smoking.

Methods: We used SILNE-R cross-sectional survey data (2016/2017) of 10,798 14-16-year-old students from 55 secondary schools in seven European cities. Respondents reported for private and public spaces whether they had seen others smoke there in the last 6 months. Beliefs about the benefits of smoking were measured on a 7-item scale; higher scores indicated more positive beliefs. Multilevel linear regression analyses determined associations while controlling for potential confounders and stratifying by smoking status.

Results: Most students reported observing others smoke in public spaces, especially at train/bus stations (84%). Positive beliefs about smoking of never smokers were positively associated with seeing others smoke in train/bus stations and leisure/sports facilities, but not at home, a friend's home, restaurants or bars, when fully adjusted. Associations were of similar magnitude for ever smokers.

Conclusions: Smoking in several public places is highly visible to adolescents. Reducing this visibility might weaken positive beliefs that adolescents have about smoking.

Keywords: Adolescent; Awareness; Europe; Perception; Smoke-free policy; Smoking.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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