Abstract The health effects of smoking are well known and, despite efforts to reduce smoking in adolescence, prevalence of smoking during the teenage years in the UK has remained stable over recent years. This thesis examines smoking uptake during adolescence and identifies the social, psychological and physical factors associated with this process using data from the longitudinal Health And Be...

AIMS To demonstrate that intentions predict long-term future levels of smoking, irrespective of level of past smoking experience. A growing body of research suggests that intentions about future smoking might play an important role in addition to the influence of past smoking experience on the likelihood of smoking in future. DESIGN Using logistic regression analyses, we assessed the relation...

BACKGROUND Smoking in pregnancy exemplifies the relationship between tobacco use and health inequalities. While difficulty reaching and engaging this population in cessation support is often highlighted in the literature, there is limited research that explores the factors that shape the provision and use of support by this subpopulation. Using Ontario, Canada, as a case study, this study exami...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Despite reductions in prevalence in recent years, tobacco smoking remains one of the main preventable causes of ill-health and premature death worldwide. This paper reviews the extent and nature of harms caused by smoking, the benefits of stopping, patterns of smoking, psychological, pharmacological and social factors that contribute to uptake and maintenance of smokin...

Smoking cigarettes is a gendered activity with sex- and gender-specific uptake trends and cessation patterns. While global male smoking rates have peaked, female rates are set to escalate in the 21st century, especially in low and middle income countries. Hence, smoking cessation for women will be an ongoing issue and requires refreshed attention. Public health and health promotion messages are...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Social norms towards smoking are a key concept in tobacco control policy and research. However, the influence strength of different types social on youth uptake is unclear. This study aimed to examine, quantify compare evidence longitudinal associations between (initiation escalation). METHODS: Systematic review searching four databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL...

Tobacco use is prevalent in adolescents and understanding factors that contribute to smoking uptake remains a critical public health priority. While there is now good support for the role of implicit (preconscious) cognitive processing in accounting for changes in drug use, these models have not been applied to tobacco use. Longitudinal analysis of smoking data presents unique problems, because...

BACKGROUND The hazardous health effects of smoking and second hand smoke have been confirmed in numerous studies. For Germany, the mortality attributable to smoking is estimated at 110,000 to 140,000 deaths per year, associated with annual smoking-related costs of 17 to 21 billion euro. Because the majority of smokers initiate this habit early in life, behavioural preventive strategies usually ...