PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Anthony A Laverty
AU  - Filippos T Filippidis
AU  - David Taylor-Robinson
AU  - Christopher Millett
AU  - Andrew Bush
AU  - Nicholas S Hopkinson
TI  - Smoking uptake in UK children: analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study
AID  - 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2018-212254
DP  - 2019 Jun 01
TA  - Thorax
PG  - 607--610
VI  - 74
IP  - 6
4099  - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/74/6/607.short
4100  - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/74/6/607.full
SO  - Thorax2019 Jun 01; 74
AB  - We used data from 11 577 children in the UK Millennium Cohort Study, collected at approximately 14 years of age (early teens), to assess characteristics associated with smoking, and generated regional estimates of numbers of smokers. 13.8% of UK early teens studied had ever smoked; 1.9% were current smokers. This corresponds to 2 28 136 and 39 653 (13–14 year olds) in the UK, respectively. Ever smoking risk increased if caregivers (26.0% vs 10.9%) or friends smoked (35.1% vs 4.0%), with a dose–response effect for friends’ smoking. Caregiver and peer-group smoking remain important drivers of child smoking uptake and thus important targets for intervention.