Study finds teens don’t fully understand risks of smoking

A new research paper from the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer (CBRC) at Cancer Council Victoria has shown gaps in teenagers’ understanding of the harms of smoking.

Quit and Cancer Council Victoria are particularly concerned about findings in the paper, published this month in peer-reviewed journal Tobacco Control, about how adolescents who are more susceptible to smoking were less likely to understand that smoking causes a range of diseases and that smoking spreads toxic chemicals all around the body.

The study showed students have greater awareness of diseases that have been heavily publicised in Australia via campaigns or as graphic health warnings on cigarette packs.

More than four in five adolescents understood that smoking causes lung diseases (87.9 per cent) and heart attacks (80.3 per cent), but more than a third did not know that smoking causes stomach cancer (35.6 per cent) or makes your bones weak (42.4 per cent).

Professor Sarah Durkin, director of CBRC, said these findings showed campaigns and tobacco graphic health warnings embedded awareness of smoking harms across the population.

She said a new set of warnings rolled out later this year will provide further opportunities to educate young Australians.

“We know that young people who have vaped are at least three times as likely to go on to smoke, so with the recent increases in teen vaping and smoking susceptibility, it is critical that we continue to emphasise the extraordinary harmfulness and addictiveness of smoking to prevent experimentation and smoking uptake among young people.”

The paper follows a recent ANU study that found smoking harms are worse than previously understood, and that smoking even at low levels was very dangerous.

In Australia, where tobacco control efforts have driven daily smoking prevalence down to 8.8 per cent, 24,000 Australians still die every year from smoking-related illness – equivalent to 66 deaths a day.

“We must continue to inform young people about the life-threatening harms of cigarettes,” Quit director Rachael Anderson said.

“At Quit, we’re here for all Australians.”

“We work to help prevent people from starting smoking or vaping. And we’re on hand to help those who smoke or vape to quit.”

Incoming regulation will ban the use of menthol flavouring in tobacco in Australia.

Menthol cigarettes are often the first type of cigarettes young people try, and the study showed that almost three in four (74.1 per cent) of adolescents did not know that menthol cigarettes are more addictive than non-menthol equivalents.

“With around 20 per cent of Australian teens at risk of taking up smoking in the future, these findings really highlight the urgent need for continued efforts to prevent new generations taking up this life-threatening habit.” Professor Durkin said.

The study was based on 8,631 students aged between 12 and 17 who participated in the 2022-2023 round of the Australian Secondary Students’ Alcohol and Drug survey, the largest national survey of adolescent substance use in Australia.

The survey was led by Cancer Council Victoria’s Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer and funded by the federal government Department of Health and Aged Care, state and territory governments and Cancer Councils in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.

The self-report questionnaire is completed by students independently and anonymously on school premises.

For support to stop smoking or vaping, message Quitline on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger @QuitVic, live chat through quit.org.au or request a callback from Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm.