Childhood exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) is a serious threat to public health and can be influenced by parental lifestyle habits and beliefs. Taking the above into account we aimed at locating predictors of parental induced exposure to SHS in the house and family car among 614 children who visited the emergency department of two large pediatric hospitals in Athens, Greece. The multivariate ...

BACKGROUND Some previous studies have suggested that area-level characteristics have effects on smoking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between household income and area income on smoking in Korean adults. METHODS This study was based on the Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS) performed in South Korea, between September and November 2009. In total, 222,242 subjects (...

The present cross-sectional study on adult Asian Indians in Calcutta, India was undertaken to look into the effects of socio-economic and behavioural characteristics in explaining waist-hip ratio (WHR). A total of 500 apparently healthy individuals (300 men and 200 women) were subjects in the study. A random sampling procedure using local voter's registration list was followed to select the sub...

We investigated the relationship between the prevalence of smoking in females and various social factors, such as household size. Ten thousand and sixty-nine subjects over 20 years of age were randomly selected from the general population of Mie Prefecture. The results showed that the habit of smoking was significantly associated with household size in women (P< 0.01), but not in men. Regarding...

BACKGROUND There is interest in using residential dust to estimate human exposure to environmental contaminants. OBJECTIVES We aimed to characterize the sources of variability for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in residential dust and provide guidance for investigators who plan to use residential dust to assess exposure to PAHs. METHODS We collected repeat dust samples from 293 hou...

BACKGROUND Socioeconomic inequalities in smoking habits have stabilized in many Western countries. This study aimed at evaluating whether socioeconomic disparities in smoking habits are still enlarging in Italy and at comparing the impact of education and occupation. METHODS In the frame of the GEIRD study (Gene Environment Interactions in Respiratory Diseases) 10,494 subjects, randomly selec...

Smoking habits and attitudes towards smoking of medical students (n = 725), house officers (n = 126) and consultants (n = 236) of the University Hospital of Groningen were studied, in 1989 by means of a World Health Organization (WHO) questionnaire. Overall response rate was 84%. Twenty seven percent of the medical students are current smokers, 28% of the house officers and 34% of the consultan...

AIM The aim of the present study was to investigate possible associations between UV exposure and other health risk behaviours in different social environments and in regard to previous history of skin cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS In two closely-located, equally-sized cities in Sweden, representing different social environments (blue collar and white collar), patients aged 55-69 years, diagno...