Feature Story

February 10, 2008

Elderly More Likely to Deny Smoking When Asked

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

More elderly adults are lighting up cigarettes and not reporting their nicotine habits to doctors and others, according to findings from one of the first studies to examine the accuracy of self-reported smoking habits by age, race and gender of adults 18 years and older by researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and other university collaborators.

The findings bring into question the validity of using self-reported tobacco use when conducting research projects, reporting tobacco use by the general public or caring for individuals with chronic diseases related to smoking, according to researchers of the study, "Age and Race/Ethnicity-Gender Predictors of Denying Smoking, United States."

The researchers conducted their study by identifying self-reported non-smokers from 15, 182 adults in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Non-Hispanic white men and women followed the pattern of the overall study and increased denial with age.

However denial of smoking decreased for older Mexican American women, but the denial rate basically remained stable over age for non-Hispanic black men and women and Mexican American men.

Social taboos against smoking among the older groups may drive some elderly to deny smoking, said Fisher.

For example, researchers reported that an earlier study by other researchers showed cotinine---by-product of nicotine use that stays in the blood for several days after smoking -based smokers who self-reported as non smokers---had significantly higher mortality rates (36%) than self-reported true non-smokers (15%).

While researchers detected true smokers, the segment that occasionally smokes was potentially missed, which could raise the number of people who smoke.

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