Active and Passive Smoking in Military Women

Bibliography

Name: Janice Agazio

Rank: LTC (ret), USA.

Organization: Henry M. Jackson Foundation

Performance Site: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC

Year Published: 1997

Abstract Status: Final

Abstract

Note: The Original PI was Angela Martinelli, MAJ, USAR.

Despite a recent decline in smoking by military personnel, military members and their dependents continue to smoke at rates that are higher than their civilian counterparts. The purpose of the original study was to test of a model active and passive smoking in military women with children. The sample consisted of 157 non-smoking and 81 smoking mothers with a mean age of 37 for both smokers and non-smokers. The model constructs, which were adapted from Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behavior change, included: (1) stages of behavior change, (2) decisional balance, and (3) self-efficacy. Other constructs included: (1) personal and situational factors, (2) mother's self-efficacy to reduce child's ETS exposure, (3) mother's expectation for child's ETS exposure, (4) avoidance of ETS, (5) nicotine dependence, and (6) social support for quitting smoking. The outcome variable was daily ETS exposure in women and children. Results showed that for non-smokers, exposure was related to stage of ETS avoidance, pros and cons of exposure, self-efficacy to resist exposure, and ETS avoidance. Non-smokers children's exposure was related to mother's self-efficacy for herself and her child. For smokers, exposure was related to the pros of smoking; for their children exposure was related to mother's exposure and inversely related to the mother's efficacy to resist ETS exposure for her child. Both non-smokers and their children had lower exposure scores than smokers and their children. For women, exposure was predicted living with a smoker; for children, exposure was predicted by mother's level of education.

In a secondary analysis, the purpose of this study was to test a trimmed model of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) smoke in women and their children. Model constructs, some of which were adapted from Transtheoretical Model of behavior change, measured personal and situational factors, pros and cons of ETS exposure, self-efficacy to resist ETS, mother's expectation for child's ETS exposure and mother's self-efficacy to reduce child's ETS exposure. The mediating variable was the mother's daily ETS exposure while the outcome variable was the child's daily ETS exposure. The results of secondary analysis showed that 32% of the variance in mother's daily exposure (mediating variable) was accounted for by living with a smoker, having high ETS "pros" (as opposed to ETS "cons"), having less self-efficacy to resist ETS, and having greater self-efficacy to reduce her child's exposure. There was a significant, positive relationship between the mother and child's daily ETS exposure (outcome variable).

 

Final Report is available on NTRL: https://www.usuhs.edu/node/3393