Moradi Phillip, Thornton Judith, Edwards Richard, Harrison Roger A, Washington Stephen J, Kelly Simon P
Bolton Eye Unit, Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust, Bolton BL4 0JR, UK.
Br J Ophthalmol. 2007 May;91(5):605-7. doi: 10.1136/bjo.2006.108191. Epub 2007 Feb 6.
Cigarette smoking often starts in teenage years. It is not known whether teenagers are aware of the association of smoking with eye disease and blindness.
To explore the knowledge of the link between smoking, and eye diseases and blindness, and the likely impact of this knowledge among teenagers in UK.
A cross-sectional survey, using a structured interview of teenagers attending four organised social events, was conducted. Awareness and fear of blindness, and of three smoking-related diseases (lung cancer, heart disease and stroke) and a distractor condition (deafness) was investigated. The likelihood of smokers quitting on developing early signs of each condition was determined.
A 92% "opt in" response rate was achieved. Out of 260 teenagers (16-18 years), 15%, 27% and 81% believed that smoking caused stroke, heart disease and lung cancer, respectively. Only 5% believed smoking caused blindness. Subjects ranked their fear of each of the five conditions, scoring five for the most feared and one for the least feared. Subjects were significantly (p<0.01) more fearful (mean scores in brackets) of blindness (4.2) than of lung cancer (3.4), heart disease (2.3) and deafness (1.2). More teenagers (p<0.01) said they would stop smoking on developing early signs of blindness compared with early signs of lung or heart disease.
Awareness of the risk of blindness from smoking is low among teenagers, but fear of blindness may be more likely to motivate teenagers to stop smoking than fear of lung or heart disease. Teenagers should be made more aware of the ocular risks of cigarette smoking as a novel public health measure.
吸烟常常始于青少年时期。目前尚不清楚青少年是否知晓吸烟与眼部疾病及失明之间的关联。
探讨英国青少年对于吸烟与眼部疾病及失明之间联系的认知情况，以及这种认知可能产生的影响。
开展了一项横断面调查，采用结构化访谈的方式对参加四项有组织社交活动的青少年进行调查。调查了对失明以及三种与吸烟相关疾病（肺癌、心脏病和中风）的认知和恐惧程度，同时还调查了一种干扰情况（耳聋）。确定了吸烟者在出现每种疾病早期症状时戒烟的可能性。
实现了92%的“自愿参与”回复率。在260名青少年（16 - 18岁）中，分别有15%、27%和81%的人认为吸烟会导致中风、心脏病和肺癌。只有5%的人认为吸烟会导致失明。受试者对这五种情况的恐惧程度进行了排序，最恐惧的打5分，最不恐惧的打1分。与肺癌（平均得分3.4）、心脏病（平均得分2.3）和耳聋（平均得分1.2）相比，受试者对失明（平均得分4.2）的恐惧程度显著更高（p<0.01）。与出现肺癌或心脏病的早期症状相比，更多青少年（p<0.01）表示在出现失明的早期症状时会停止吸烟。
青少年对吸烟导致失明风险的认知较低，但与对肺癌或心脏病的恐惧相比，对失明的恐惧可能更能促使青少年戒烟。作为一项新的公共卫生措施，应该让青少年更多地了解吸烟对眼睛的危害。
