Children and teens exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to develop symptoms of mental health problems including major depressive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and others, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.Plenty of studies have linked secondhand smoke to respiratory problems, asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, middle-ear infections and other physical health problems, but the link between secondhand smoke and mental health has not been examined as closely.
The new study is believed to be the first that looks at how secondhand smoke exposure - as measured by the presence of a nicotine metabolite in the blood - is associated with mental health in a nationally representative sample of American kids and teens.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Miami and Legacy, a nonprofit organization that fights tobacco use, used data on 2,901 youths who were between the ages of 8 and 15 when they were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2001 to 2004.
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