title: Secondhand smoke exposure and health services use among adolescent current smokers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To investigate the associations of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure with medical consultation and hospitalisation among adolescents in Hong Kong.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 35827 secondary 1 (US grade 7) to secondary 5 students from 85 randomly selected schools completed an anonymous questionnaire on smoking, SHS at home, SHS outside home, medical consultation in the past 14 days, hospitalisation in the past 12 months, and socio-demographic characteristics. Current smoking was defined as any smoking in the past 30 days. SHS exposure was classified as none (reference), 1-4 and 5-7 days/week. Logistic regression yielded adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for medical consultation and hospitalisation in relation to SHS exposure at home and outside home in current smokers. Analyses were also done among never-smokers for comparison.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among all students, 15.9% had medical consultation and 5.2% had been hospitalised. Any SHS exposure at home was associated with AORs (95% CI) for medical consultation and hospitalisation of 1.69 (1.14-2.51) and 2.85 (1.47-5.52) in current smokers, and 1.03 (0.91-1.15) and 1.25 (1.02-1.54) in never-smokers, respectively, (P<0.01 for interaction between smoking status and SHS exposure at home). SHS exposure outside home was generally not associated with medical consultation and hospitalisation in smokers and never-smokers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SHS exposure at home was associated with health services use among adolescent current smokers. Adolescent smokers should be aware of the harm of SHS in addition to that from their own smoking. The evidence helps health care professionals to advise adolescent smokers to avoid SHS exposure and stop smoking.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Man Ping
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Sai Yin
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Wing Sze
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Tai Hing
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lam
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution