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Children and teenagers exposed to second hand smoke at home may get poorer grades than their peers from smoke-free homes, a study of Hong Kong students suggests.
Second hand smoke is a well-known health threat to children, being linked to increased risks of asthma, as well as bronchitis, pneumonia and other respiratory infections. Studies have also found a connection between smoking during pregnancy and higher risks of childhood behaviour problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Some research has also found that children exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb or at home may trail their peers when it comes to cognitive abilities like reasoning and remembering. But whether second hand smoke itself is to blame remains unclear.
Students admit to low school performance
In the new study, researchers found that among 23,000 11- to 20-year-old non-smoking students, the one-third who lived with at least one smoker were more likely to describe their own school performance as "poor."
Of students who said they were exposed to smoking at home at least five days a week, 23 percent said their school performance was poor compared with their classmates'. That rate was 20 percent among kids who had less frequent second hand-smoke exposure at home, and 17 percent among those from smoke-free homes.
The researchers were able to account for certain other factors, like parents' education levels and the type of housing both markers of socioeconomic status. They found that students' exposure to second hand smoke, itself, was linked to a 14 percent to 28 percent greater risk of poor school performance, depending on how frequent the exposure was.
Dr. Sai-Yin Ho and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong report the results in the Journal of Paediatrics.
Findings may be inconclusive
The findings do not prove that second hand smoke was the reason for the poorer grades.
The study had a number of limitations, including its reliance on students' ratings of their own academic performance and exposure to tobacco smoke. Future studies should include objective measures of second hand-smoke exposure, using urine samples, as well as official school records, Ho's team writes.
The researchers also could not account for the full range of factors that might be related to both second hand-smoke exposure and children's school performance. They lacked information, for example, on whether students were exposed to smoking in the womb.
Still, Ho's team notes, it is biologically plausible that the many toxic compounds in tobacco smoke including lead, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide could affect children's cognitive abilities.
Regardless of whether second hand smoke does hurt kids' school performance, there are many established reasons for parents to quit smoking and limit their children's exposure to smokers.
These findings, the researchers write, offer another potential reason for parents to "eliminate smoking at home" and warn their children to avoid second hand exposure. (Reuters Health/ July 2010)
SOURCE: http://link.reuters.com/xyq32n
Journal of Paediatrics
