Secondhand smoke linked to higher risk of ADHD, learning disorders in kids
A new study by the American Academy of Pediatrics point to the possibility of a higher risk of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) and learning disabilities in kids who are often exposed to secondhand smoke.
Using 2007 data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics, researchers form the Harvard School of Public Health and the Tobacco Free research Institute in Dublin, Ireland, estimated than almost 5 million children age 12 or younger are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes.
Eight percent of those children-more than a quarter million-had learning disabilities, ADHD, or other behavioral disorders; compared to children whose parents didn't smoke, those exposed to second-hand smoke "had a 50 percent increased risk of developing two or more childhood neurobehavioral disorders compared with children who were not exposed at home," CNN reported. According to the study,children age 9 to 11 living in high poverty levels were at greatest risk, especially boys. In areas where poverty is high, secondhand smoke can drift into the home from other units in the same building, affecting even kids whose parents aren't smokers.
The study authors emphasize the fact that their findings "are associational and not necessarily causal," but conclude that their results "underscore the health burden of childhood neurobehavioral disorders that may be attributable to secondhand smoke exposure in homes in the States."
"This is particularly significant with regard to the potential burden of pediatric mental health care on an overextended health care system, a problem that could be dramatically reduced if voluntary smoke-free home policies were widely adopted," they write in their report.
The emphasis on "voluntary smoke-free home policies" is no surprise, given that the study's lead researcher, Hillel Alpert, is a scientist for the Tobacco Control Research and Training Program at the Harvard School of Public health. The study also found that "Socioeconomic indicators, such as pa- rental education, two-parent biological parents, household poverty status, and foreign status of mothers, all proved to be significant predictors of childhood neurobehavioral disorders."
Reducing diagnoses of ADHD and other neurobehavioral disorders could reduce over all health costs as well. The annual medical cost associated with treating neurobehavioral disorders is about $14,576 per child, or a national total of about $9.2 billion each year, the report found.
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