Parental smoking and child poverty in the UK: an analysis of national survey data

Tools

Belvin, Charmaine, Britton, John, Holmes, John and Langley, Tessa (2015) Parental smoking and child poverty in the UK: an analysis of national survey data. BMC Public Health, 15 . 507/1-507/8. ISSN 1471-2458

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In 2011/12 approximately 2.3 million children, 17% of children in the UK, were estimated to be in relative poverty. Cigarette smoking is expensive and places an additional burden on household budgets, and is strongly associated with socioeconomic deprivation. The aim of this study was to provide an illustrative first estimate of the extent to which parental smoking exacerbates child poverty in the UK.

METHODS: Findings from the 2012 Households Below Average Income report and the 2012 Opinions and Lifestyle Survey were combined to estimate the number of children living in poor households containing smokers; the expenditure of typical smokers in these households on tobacco; and the numbers of children drawn into poverty if expenditure on smoking is subtracted from household income.

RESULTS: 1.1 million children - almost half of all children in poverty - were estimated to be living in poverty with at least one parent who smokes; and a further 400,000 would be classed as being in poverty if parental tobacco expenditure were subtracted from household income.

CONCLUSIONS: Smoking exacerbates poverty for a large proportion of children in the UK. Tobacco control interventions which effectively enable low income smokers to quit can play an important role in reducing the financial burden of child poverty.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/751028
Keywords: Smoking prevalence, Child poverty
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Medicine > Division of Epidemiology and Public Health
Identification Number: 10.1186/s12889-015-1797-z
Related URLs:
URL
URL Type
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4448212/
UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User: Claringburn, Tara
Date Deposited: 10 Aug 2016 07:48
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 17:07
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/35777

Actions (Archive Staff Only)

Edit View Edit View