21:00 05 April 04
NewScientist.com news service
Teenage lesbian or bisexual girls are many times more likely to smoke regularly than straight girls their age. They are the worst hit by tobacco among all groups of young people, according to a new US study.
Almost 40 per cent of
teenage lesbian or bisexual girls aged between 12 and 17 said they smoked weekly compared with just six per cent of
heterosexual girls in an ongoing study of 16,000 adolescents.
However, these high rates were not seen in
gay or bisexual boys, who were no more likely to smoke than straight boys.
Lesbian and bisexual girls
were also 60 per cent more likely than heterosexual girls to say they would use tobacco-promoting merchandise like hats and T-shirts.
"We were surprised," says lead researcher, S Bryn Austin at Children's Hospital Boston, Massachusetts. "Antigay stigma and harassment, rejection from family and friends, and sometimes even physical violence can create a hostile environment for many young people coming to terms with their sexual orientation. This, combined with the tobacco industry's targeted marketing to lesbian and gay communities, is putting
lesbian and bisexual girls in harm's way."
Anecdotal reports
"There certainly have been a number of anecdotal reports that there are higher smoking rates in the gay community among adults," says Amanda Sandford, research manager at the UK's Action on Smoking and Health campaign group. "But I haven't seen anything comparable before for such a young age group."
She told New Scientist that as 80 per cent of smokers are known to start young, presumably the same occurs in the gay community.
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Weblinks
Adolescent Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston
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Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
"But what is interesting is the difference in gender," she adds. "It suggests a social influence of some sort. Marketing could be one. There's evidence that tobacco companies have particularly targeted women in the past."
She speculates that "feelings of rejection and isolation" could also be a factor in
gay girls. She says that generally teenage boys tend to smoke socially, but teenage girls often smoke on their own.
The study was based on surveys completed by nearly 11,000 US teenagers in 1999. Because of the frequency of smoking and high scores on a tobacco dependence index, the team believes it is unlikely the lesbian and bisexual girls in the study were merely experimenting. It is likely these girls were addicted to nicotine, they say.
Journal reference: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (April issue)
Shaoni Bhattacharya
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