Bmc Public Health
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Evaluating environmental tobacco smoke exposure in a group of Turkish primary school students and developing intervention methods for prevention.
In countries like Turkey where smoking is highly prevalent, children's exposure to tobacco smoke is an important public health problem. The goals of this study were to determine the self-reported environmental tobacco smoke exposure status of primary school students in grades 3 to 5, to verify self-reported exposure levels with data provided from a biomarker of exposure, and to develop methods for preventing school children from passive smoking. ⋯ Self-reported ETS exposure was found to be pretty accurate in the 9-11 age group when checked with urinary cotinine tests. Only informing parents that their children' ETS exposure were confirmed by a laboratory test seems to be very promising in preventing children from ETS.
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The UK is the only developed country to have established a nation-wide stop smoking treatment service. Apart from addressing tobacco dependence, which is the leading preventable cause of ill health and premature death, smoking cessation has been identified by the UK department of health as a service priority for reducing gaps in health between disadvantaged groups and the country as a whole. However smoking cessation tends to be more successful among affluent than disadvantaged groups. This means that for stop smoking services there is a trade-off to be had in terms of maximising the number of quitters and reducing socioeconomic inequalities in smoking prevalence. Current performance targets for the national stop smoking services in the UK are set only in terms of numbers of quitters, which does not encourage the adoption of strategies to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in smoking prevalence. ⋯ The Secretary of State for Health in the UK has warned about the dangers of health promotion services and messages being taken up more readily by the better-off, thus exacerbating health inequalities. Because smokers from affluent backgrounds are more successful at quitting than those living in deprived circumstances, it is important to build an equity element into the monitoring of individual stop smoking services. Otherwise the danger highlighted by the Secretary of State for Health will go undetected and unaddressed.