ASSESSING KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF PARENTS/CARERS, HEALTH IMPLICATIONS AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES OF SECOND HAND SMOKING ON CHILDREN

Introduction

A serious health threat, particularly for newborns and children, is secondhand smoking (SHS). Smoking causes six million deaths globally each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2019). As a result of the rise in cigarette use, more people are being exposed to SHS, which contains over 50 carcinogens and 4,000 harmful toxins and chemicals. Nonsmokers are also at risk for developing heart disease, lung cancer, and other ailments due to exposure to these substances according to the World health organization (WHO 2018).

Unwanted inhalation of tobacco smoke from other people's cigarettes or burning tobacco items is known as second-hand smoke exposure (SHS). Between 1964 and 2014, 2,500,000 non-smokers died or experienced health-related consequences as a result of exposure to SHS, which comprises 70 kinds of carcinogens (WHO, 2021). Annually, second-hand smoking causes $267 million in medical costs because of the illnesses and deaths it causes in both children and adults. Children are more likely to have respiratory symptoms and infections as a result of the adverse impacts, and their lung development is also slowed (Hock et al., 2019). SHS is especially dangerous to children because of their rapidly developing bodies and quicker breathing rates. Children across the globe are exposed to Second hand smoking at a rate of around 40% (CDC, 2020).

According to two Lancet publications in 1974, babies whose parents smoked had higher medical admission rates, as well as higher rates of bronchitis and pneumonia among their medical problems (Colley et al., 1974; and Harlap and Davies, 1974). Several studies since then have shown an increase in the number of baby deaths due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), asthma, respiratory tract infections (RTIs), and prematurity (Hock et al., 2019). Using the prevalence of exposure in the area and disease-specific estimates for lower respiratory infections, otitis media, lung cancer, asthma, and ischaemic heart disease, Daly et al. (2016) conservatively attributed 603 000 deaths (1% of all deaths) and 10.9 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) (0.7 percent of all DALYs) to second hand smoking. No safe amount of SHS exists, and children's underdeveloped immune systems and lungs make them especially susceptible.

It is the parents' responsibility to ensure that their children are not exposed to SHS via their own smoking habits at home or in the automobile. Therefore, adult interventions are needed to promote the health of children, and to prevent them from starting to smoke or to assist them in quitting (Martínez et al., 2014). Changing parents' views and educating them via individual counseling, education, or smoking cessation programs is one way to individual prevention. A structural strategy, on the other hand, relies on tactics like as economic incentives, lowering the supply of cigarettes, tobacco-free advertising, or smoke-free public areas to change the environment and organizational structures (Fernández et al., 2020).

Ethnicity, children's age, and parental smoking behavior are all connected with parental risk knowledge and perception of the exposure to SHS in children (Cairney and Mamudu, 2014). More protective parents prefer to avoid smoking in the house if they believe their children are at greater danger of exposure from secondhand smoke. Tobacco smokers with children under the age of three are more concerned about exposing them to SHS than those with older kids (Elton-Marshall et al., 2015). Having a smoker in the household increases the chances of a child being exposed to SHS by 3.5 times (Laverty et al., 2020). To create effective treatments for particular groups of parents with low risk knowledge, it is necessary to establish the variables that impact the risk perception of SHS exposure amongst parents.

Children are exposed to SHS because their parents smoke, and programs focused at stopping their parents from smoking are unsuccessful (Kuehni and Barben, 2015). Parents and carers should not be allowed to smoke in the proximity of their children. It may be possible to determine the viability of these initiatives by assessing the opinions of parents of young children on such restrictions. Therefore, this study sought to assess the knowledge and health risk perceptions of parents/carers when it comes to children's exposure to second hand smoking, as well as their existing actions for preventing children from being exposed to SHS in Middlesbrough, UK.

Aim and Objectives

The main aim of this study is to assess the knowledge level of parents/ carers, health implications and preventive measures of second hand smoking on children in Middlesbrough, UK. Second hand smoking causes so many respiratory challenges among children in the UK because they are easily exposed to these smokes within areas of little or no escape. This study therefore sought to provide solution to this problem by identifying the following objectives:

1. To examine the knowledge level and perception of second hand smoking on children in Middlesbrough, UK.

2. To assess the health implications of second hand smoking on children in Middlesbrough, UK.

3. To provide preventive measures to the issue posed by second hand smoking on children in Middlesbrough, UK.

Scope of the study

This study will be carried out on the assessment of knowledge level of patents/carers, health implication and preventive measures of second-hand smoking on children in Middlesbrough, UK. The study was selected due to the high prevalence of smoking in Middlesbrough, UK. According to a report by Alsubheen et al. (2022), Middlesborough has one of the highest rates of smokers with 20.8%; therefore, increasing the risk of second-hand smoking among children. Regardless of this statistical representation, little or no research has been conducted on health implications and preventive measures of SHS in Middlesbrough in particulare. Therefore, there is need to carry out this research in other to proffer solutions to the issues of SHS among children.