Growing up with an adult smoker increases the risk of children smoking

Smoking is a learnt behaviour and children are influenced by their adults

Growing up in a home with a regular smoker nearly doubles the chances of a child becoming an adult smoker, according to a research published in the journal Preventive Medicine.

"We know that exposure to cigarette smoking as a child is a risk factor for adult smoking because it is a learnt behaviour, and our study results corroborate this theory," said study lead author Elena Navas-Nacher, a researcher at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

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The findings are based on data from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), the largest ongoing study of this ethno-culturally diverse population in the US.

The researchers looked at data collected from 13,231 adults between the ages 18-74.

Forty percent of participants reported being exposed to smoking in their homes as children and adolescents, and 20 percent of all participants were current cigarette smokers.