Starting Smoking Early Leads To More Addiction

Starting smoking early leads to more addiction

The earlier a person starts smoking, the more difficult it is for him to give up this habit. This problem is found even in people who only occasionally smoked during adolescence.

Photo: Valentin Ottone

People who started smoking at an early age are more likely to smoke as adults, it is more difficult for them to quit smoking. New research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, highlights the need to prevent smoking in children and adolescents.

Problems with smoking were even among those who did not constantly smoke in childhood, but only "experimented" a little, the scientists write.

“Cigarette smoking is a avoidable health risk and is often rooted in childhood,” study co-author David Jacobs of the University of Minnesota told CNN.

Scientists analyzed data on 6,600 study participants. They compared data on smoking in people aged 6-19, after 20 and after 40.

The younger people were when they learned to smoke, the more they were associated with this habit.

About half of those who first tried smoking at the age of 6-14 smoked at the age of 20-30. This indicator decreased for those who started smoking at the age of 18-19 to 8%.

The earlier a person starts smoking, the stronger his dependence on nicotine, scientists write.