Dutch youth's smoking behaviour during a partial Covid-19 lockdown

J Public Health Res. 2021 Sep 29;11(1):2106. doi: 10.4081/jphr.2021.2106.

Abstract

Previous research found that adult smokers increased their smoking in response to the Covid-19 lockdown in spring 2020. This study explored changes in youth's smoking during, compared to before, the partial lockdown in the Netherlands in a cross-sectional sample of 287 adolescents. Smoking prevalence increased from 4.5% to 5.2%. Cigarette consumption remained the same on school days and increased with +1.9 cigarettes per weekend day. The largest increase in cigarette consumption on weekend days was observed for adolescents who 1) did not consider smoking a risk factor for contracting Covid-19 (+4.5), 2) had smoking siblings (+4.1), and 3) had smoking friends (+2.4). Youth without smoking friends (-0.8) and who considered smoking a risk factor for Covid-19 (-0.2) decreased their cigarette consumption.

Grants and funding

Funding: This study is part of the ‘Tobacco out of Sight’ project, which is funded by the Dutch Lung Foundation, Dutch Heart Foundation, Dutch Cancer Society, Dutch Thrombosis Foundation and Dutch Diabetes research Foundation, Call tobacco control policies 2018, under project number 2.1.19.007.