US teens can smoke narghile because "everyone does it"

By Lisa Rapaport

(Reuters Health) – More than half of American teens overestimate the frequency with which their peers smoke hookah, and a new study suggests that they are over nine times more likely to try it themselves. "Adolescence is a crucial stage of development when young people are under pressure to socially integrate," said lead author of the study, Dr. Israel Agaku, researcher at the Office. on smoking and the health of US centers for disease control and prevention. ) in Atlanta.

"Peer pressure, coupled with frequent exposure to pro-tobacco advertising, may lead young people to believe that the hookah is far more common than it actually is," he said. declared Agaku by email. "The likelihood of young people smoking narghile increases if they believe that" everyone is doing it ", even if this perception is inaccurate.

The vast majority of American teens have never tried the hookah, a water pipe used to smoke flavored or sweetened tobacco.

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Although many users think that it is less harmful, smoking hookah has many of the same health risks as smoking, according to the CDC.

Overall, only about 11% of students in Grades 6 to 12 have tried, found the Agaku team.

But three out of five teenagers overestimate how many of their classmates smoke narghile, they report in pediatrics.

Young people's perception of hookah popularity among their peers was higher than actual use rates up to 10-fold in ninth grade and at least five-fold in twelfth grade.

For the study, the researchers examined the tobacco use survey data collected in 2016 from a nationally representative sample of 20,675 adolescents.

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Of the minority of participants who had tried the hookah at least once, 66% were former users. Another 26% said they were currently using the hookah on occasion, and about 8% said they currently smoke hookah regularly.

The biggest predictor of hookah use was to live with a hookah smoker, according to the study. Students in this situation were more than 20 times more likely to use the hookah than youth without a hookah smoker at home.

The consumption of menthol cigarettes was very close. Teens who currently smoked menthol cigarettes were more than 19 times more likely to use the hookah than teens who did not use it. The increased risk of using the hookah was also more than 17 times higher among youth who used other types of flavored tobacco products.

Most teens do not use hookah in narghile bars and popular restaurants with students and young adults.

In this study, 48% of adolescents reported using a narghile at a friend's house; 31% said that they tried it in their own home; and 21 percent smoked at a parent's home.

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This suggests that efforts to restrict the use of hookahs by teenagers in public places may be insufficient to solve the problem, said Dr. Benjamin Chaffee, a researcher on tobacco in Canada. University of California at San Francisco. involved in the study.

"Aromatic restrictions and the limitation of narghile sites to 21 years and older are important to prevent the use of young people, but the high prevalence of narghile at home implies a strong need to communicate with young people, parents and other family members. hookah smoking, "added Chaffee.

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how teenagers' social life could have a direct impact on their hookah use. Another limitation of the study is that it only includes young people enrolled in the school.

Yet the results reflect other research suggesting that adolescents overestimate how much their peers drink and smoke, and that these misperceptions can influence behavior, said Thomas Wills, director of the Cancer Prevention Program in the United States. Pacific at the University of Hawaii. Center in Honolulu.

"The general trend among adolescents is to assume that problematic behaviors are more common than they actually are, partly because teens are more likely to discuss use than they are. 39, at the abstention. " Wills, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail.

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"Also, abstainers may feel compelled to express their opinions because they feel it's not cool," Wills added.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2tVf72M Pediatrics, Online July 2, 2018.