Effective & Trusted Medications Guide » Smoking, Alcohol & Drugs
A new global survey released by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds troubling rates of tobacco use, and even higher rates of exposure to secondhand smoke, among children around the world. According to the CDC, several findings of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey indicate that the global death toll from tobacco use, already the world’s leading preventable cause of death, may be increasing even faster than thought. These include higher rates of smoking among girls than have been previously found, high levels of exposure to secondhand smoke, and a high level of exposure to tobacco marketing. The survey was published in the January 25 edition of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
New York State Department of Health unveiled its “Don’t Be Silent About Smoking” ad campaign, urging health care providers to make quitting a priority for their patients who smoke. The $1.3 million cutting-edge campaign features graphic images of health care providers with their mouths stitched or taped shut to dramatize how doctors can help their patients quit by discussing smoking.
State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D., said, “We want to challenge clinicians across the state to take time at every office visit to talk to their patients who smoke.” Studies have found that when health care providers take the time to talk to their patients about smoking and offer assistance with quitting, long-term success can be dramatically increased.
More elderly adults are smoking cigarettes and not reporting their nicotine habits to doctors and others, according to findings from one of the first studies to examine the accuracy of self-reported smoking habits by age, race and gender of adults 18 years and older by researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and other university collaborators. A combined total of 8 percent of people from all age and race groups studied were true smokers but had denied it.
The findings bring into question the validity of using self-reported tobacco use when conducting research projects, reporting tobacco use by the general public or caring for individuals with chronic diseases related to smoking, according to researchers of the study, “Age and Race/Ethnicity-Gender Predictors of Denying Smoking, United States.” The study has been published in the current Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.