PREVENTION PROGRAMMES SHOULD TARGET THE YOUNG

A prospective 3-year survey of 401 US children has found that 217 (54%)
tried smoking in grades 5-7 (age about 10-13 years)--63 smoked throughout
the study, 90 tried smoking early on, and 64 started late. Christine
Jackson (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA) and
co-workers report that parental and peer smoking were the strongest
influences on children's smoking habits.

The 41% of smokers who started early and continued to smoke had additional
risk factors for sustained use, including: susceptibility to peer
influence; low parental monitoring of their smoking; and easy access to
cigarettes. The authors suggest that the current US antismoking strategy
that targets adolescents "overlooks the needs of children who are at risk
for habitual cigarette smoking" (Health Educ Behav 1998; 25: 276-87).

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)