Smoking before age 15 increases the risk of developing COPD later in life, regardless of current smoking status, smoking duration, cigarette pack years, and secondhand smoke exposure.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Childhood Smoking and COPD Risk: Individuals who began smoking before age 15 face an elevated risk of developing COPD, irrespective of their current smoking status or lifetime cigarette use.
- Impact Beyond Secondhand Smoke: The study found that the increased COPD risk persists even after accounting for secondhand smoke exposure, emphasizing the direct harm of early smoking on lung development.
- Critical Period for Lung Development: Smoking during childhood and early adolescence disrupts crucial lung growth, making long-term respiratory damage more likely and underscoring the need for targeted public health interventions.
Childhood smoking before age 15 increases a person’s risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a new study published in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation.
A previous study using data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey showed that COPD was more prevalent in adults who began smoking prior to 15 years of age (childhood smoking) compared to those who began after 15 years of age, regardless of their current smoking status and lifetime cigarette use.
In this new study, the authors expanded on previous research and examined whether childhood smoking before age 15 increased the likelihood of a person developing COPD later in life, even after accounting for possible secondhand smoke exposure. The new research examined a nationally representative sample of adults 40 years of age and older from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study.
“Our study suggests that a person with a childhood smoking history has an increased risk of developing COPD, regardless of current smoking status, smoking duration, cigarette pack years, and exposure to secondhand smoke,” says Laura M. Paulin, MD, MHS, a pulmonologist at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and senior author of the study, in a release. “Critical lung development occurs in childhood and early adolescence, making children’s lungs particularly susceptible to damage caused by cigarette smoking. These findings highlight the need for additional public health efforts to reduce, and ultimately prevent, childhood smoking.”
