Abstract
Background
Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) might be associated with obesity in children. This study aimed to evaluate whether continuous, quit, or start exposure to SHS was associated with obesity risk in early adolescents.
Methods
We used population-based longitudinal data of primary school students in Adachi City, Tokyo, Japan, in 2018 (4th grade) and 2020 (6th grade) and studied 3605 students. The association between continuous, quit, start, or never exposed to SHS from 4th to 6th grade and BMI categories (underweight or normal weight, overweight, obesity) in 6th grade was investigated using ordinal logistic regression models.
Results
Continuous SHS group showed a higher risk of being in the high BMI category than no SHS group (OR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.16–1.96). The stratified analyses by sex showed a similar association in boys (OR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.25–2.44) but not in girls (OR = 1.14, 95% CI 0.74–1.76). Quitting SHS group did not show a higher risk of being in the high BMI category than no SHS group (OR = 1.11, 95% CI 0.75–1.66) and the same was true for boys (OR 1.46, 95% CI 0.88–2.41).
Conclusions
Continuous SHS was a risk factor for obesity in boys in early adolescence; however, quitting SHS may help prevent it.
Impact
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Continuous secondhand smoke (SHS) was not associated with a higher risk of obesity in early adolescence in girls.
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Continuous SHS can be a risk factor for obesity in early adolescence in boys.
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Quitting SHS may help to prevent obesity in early adolescence in boys.
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Acknowledgements
We are particularly grateful to the staff members and the central office of Adachi City Hall for conducting the survey. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the surveys. In particular, we would also like to thank Mayor Yayoi Kondo, Syuichiro Akiu, and Yuko Baba of Adachi City Hall, all of who contributed significantly to the completion of this study.
Funding
This study was supported by a Health Labour Sciences Research Grant, Comprehensive Research on Lifestyle Disease from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (H27-Jyunkankito-ippan-002), Research of Policy Planning and Evaluation from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (H29-Seisaku-Shitei-004), Innovative Research Program on Suicide Countermeasures (IRPSC), and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16H03276, 16K21669, 17J05974, 17K13245, 19K19310, 19K14029, 19K19309, 19K20109, 19K14172, 19J01614, 19H04879, 20K13945, and 21H04848), St. Luke’s Life Science Institute Grants, the Japan Health Foundation Grants, and Research-Aid (Designated Theme), Meiji Yasuda Life Foundation of Health and Welfare.
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Contributions
T.F. conceived the study. T.F., M.O., A.I., and S.D. conducted the survey and collected data. K.M. was primarily responsible for data analysis and wrote the first draft of the paper. N.N. and T.F. helped draft, review, and revise the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript to be published and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
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Ethics approval and consent to participate
The study was approved by the Ethics Committees at the National Center for Child Health and Development (Study ID: 1147) and Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Study ID: M2016–284). All participants gave informed consent to participate in the survey.
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Miyamura, K., Nawa, N., Isumi, A. et al. Impact of exposure to secondhand smoke on the risk of obesity in early adolescence. Pediatr Res 93, 260–266 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-022-02231-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-022-02231-4
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