A new study published in the Journal of Behaviour Research and Therapy suggests people are less likely to initiate tobacco smoking if they engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) from childhood. Universities from Bristol and Exeter in the UK, and the University of Eastern Finland followed more than 2,500 children from the age of 11 until they were 24 and found that 0.6% of those who engaged in MPVAs began smoking by age 13, compared to 1.5% who began smoking that did not engage in activity. The study thus concludes MVPA reduces the risk of initiating tobacco smoking by 60% for 13-year-olds.
The study was the largest and the longest follow-up of accelerometer-based MVPA and smoking behavior of young people in history. Physical activity intervention studies have reported reduced smoking rates among adults; however, physical activity studies in preventing smoking in children and adolescents have been inconclusive due to short study durations, small population sizes, and lack of accelerometer-measured physical activity data.
“Stopping smoking in adulthood is good but late since a residual long-term risk of heart disease for the next thirty years still exists,” said Andrew Agbaje, physician and associate professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Child Health at the University of Eastern Finland. “Thus, preventing childhood smoking initiation is critical to lifelong health and these findings may be extrapolated to vaping and electronic cigarette use in teenagers since the same active ingredient in both smoke and smokeless tobacco is nicotine.”
The study also found that the prevalence of smoking at ages 13, 15, and 24 years was 1.5%, 13.5%, and 26.6%, respectively.
