Risk factors for adolescent smoking uptake: Analysis of prospective data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Introduction Most people who smoke initiate smoking in adolescence. Risk factors for smoking are changing over time as demographics shift, and technologies such as social media create new avenues for the tobacco industry to recruit smokers. We assessed risk factors associated with smoking uptake and regular smoking among a representative cohort of UK adolescents. Methods Data come from 8944 children followed prospectively as part of the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Smoking uptake was assessed as adolescents who had never smoked tobacco at the age of 14 years, but reported smoking ≥1 cigarette per week by the age of 17 years (regular smoking). We used logistic regression to assess associations between smoking uptake and selected sociodemographic factors including household income, caregiver smoking, peer smoking, and social media use. Weighted percentages and Office for National Statistics Data were used to estimate numbers of regular smokers and new smokers in the UK. Results Among the whole sample, 10.6% of adolescents were regular smokers at the age of 17 years. Of these, 52% initiated smoking between the ages of 14 and 17 years. Uptake was more common if caregivers smoked (13.6% vs 5.0%, p