Tobacco Smoke Exposure among New York City Children Aged 0 to 12, 2009

Objective: To characterize the burden of children’s tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) in the home and examine associations between TSE and reported asthma and other health outcomes.

Methods: Data were analyzed from the 2009 NYC Child Community Health Survey, a population-based cross-sectional telephone survey of 3002 households conducted by the NYC Health Department. A parent (91%) or other adult (9%) provided information on a randomly selected child aged 0 to 12 in the household. Prevalence of children’s home TSE was estimated based on adult report of any current smoking in the home. Logistic regression, adjusted for socioeconomic and demographic variables, was used to determine associations between children’s home TSE and having ever been diagnosed with childhood asthma, current overweight and behavioral health outcomes.

Results: Prevalence of home TSE among NYC children was 8.7% (95% CI: 6.7%-10.7%). Children in low income households had 3.4 times higher odds of TSE than children in high income households. African-American children had 2.5 times greater odds of TSE compared to non-Hispanic White children (95% CI: 1.6-3.9).  After adjusting for sociodemographic differences, home TSE was positively associated with childhood overweight status (aOR=1.95; 95% CI 1.2-3.1) but not with having ever been diagnosed with asthma (aOR=0.99).

Conclusions: We found large disparities in children’s home TSE by household income and race/ethnicity in NYC. Municipalities should support efforts to promote smoke-free policies to protect children from the harmful effects of TSE in the home.