Households With Smokers Found Lacking In Healthy Food

People who live with smokers are more likely to suffer from the lack of healthy food supplies in their homes. Alarmingly, about 17 percent of children living with adults who smoke don’t get an adequate amount of healthy food. In addition, the percentage jumps to almost 26 percent for adults lacking a healthy diet when living in a home with at least one smoker.

According to researchers at the New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center, both children and adult members of smoking households have a greater likelihood of being underfed. The findings of the new study were published in the November 3 issue of the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The study, led by Dr. Cynthia Cutler-Triggs, analyzed 8,817 households. Inhabitants of the homes were either smoking adults living with children ages 17 and younger or adults living with smoking adults. The homes were observed over a three-year period from 1999 to 2002 and were found to be insecure in regards to the level of food quality available for those living in the households.

The research team termed food insecurity as being the inability to access enough food in a socially acceptable way for every day of the year. Food insecurity was evaluated with the use of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Security Survey Module, a scale that measures often a household can’t supply children the food they want, how many meals children skip, and how often children go to bed hungry.

The researchers monitored the households to determine whether the presence of adult smokers in the homes had an affect on the food security of children and adult family members living within the same home. The study revealed that 23 percent of the observed households with children had at least one smoking member, with a higher percentage of smokers in low-income households at 32 percent.

Dr. Michael Weitzman, chairman of pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and a study author, says that children suffer the greatest impact of smokers in the home. He stated, “We know that there are long-term consequences of food insecurity for children. They are more likely to do poorly in school, to have iron deficiency and anemia, and to have behavioral and social problems.”

According to the research team, “food insecurity was more common and severe in children and adults in households with smokers.” A total of 17 percent of children living in households with smokers were food insecure, compared to only 8.7 percent in households without smokers. In addition, 15 percent of adults and 11 percent of children reported food insecurity within just the past year. It was also found that Black and Hispanic families had higher rates of food insecurity for children compared to white families with rate of 11.8 and 3.9 percent, respectively.

Severe food insecurity of children was shown to be 3.2 percent in households with smokers and only 0.9 percent in those without smokers. The study authors conclude in their report that, “The burden of food insecurity is a previously unrecognized danger of adult tobacco use to be added to the ever-growing list of negative effects of adult tobacco use on children in the United States.”

It is estimated that 2 to 20 percent of a family’s income is spent on tobacco when there is at least one smoker in the home, leaving less money to provide healthy food. Therefore, less healthy food is purchased for the home because it is costs less than healthy food.

Dr. Weitzman says that the problem is likely to grow worse due to the current state of the economy. He explained that if the economic downturn persists, both food insecurity and adults smoking are likely to increase because smoking is one of the hardest addictions to give up. He noted that simply raising the taxes on cigarettes has its own dangers, since it will likely cut into the family food budget even more.

John F. Banzhaf III, executive director and chief counsel of Action on Smoking and Health, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, suggests two ways to help curb smoking. He said, “The first would be to persuade or even require physicians to report, as the law already requires in suspected child abuse, instances where parents smoke at home in the presence of children, especially children who already have asthma, sinusitis or other conditions which make them especially sensitive and susceptible.”

Banzhaf also suggested a second plan that would involve taking action against doctors who do not warn people about the dangers of smoking or provide effective smoking cessation treatment. He also noted, “One journal article has even gone so far as to suggest that the best, and perhaps the only, way to motivate most of them would be to begin bringing malpractice actions where medical problems results.”

Prior studies have shown that children of smokers have a level of the toxic metabolite of nicotine known as cotinine that is five times higher than normal. In addition, exposure to second-hand smoke can cause nicotine withdrawal symptoms in non-smoking family members including sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, and concentration difficulties.