INTRODUCTION Secondhand smoke (SHS) causes disease and death. We assessed US parents' tobacco use and their attitudes towards smoking within private environments where children might be present. METHODS A national sample of 44626 parents collectively reporting 83782 children aged 0-17 years was analyzed from the 2014-2015 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Unit of analyses was both parents and children. Among parents, we assessed tobacco use prevalence, smoke-free home rule adoption, and opposition to smoking in cars. Logistic regression was used to measure associations between smoke-free home rule adoption and parents' cigarette smoking initiation (never smokers); quit attempts (current smokers); and sustained cessation (former smokers). Population counts of children living with a smoking parent were extrapolated from sampling weights.
RESULTSOf parents, 14.3% currently smoked combustible tobacco; approximately 9.7 million children lived with a smoking parent. While most parents opposed smoking in cars with children (95.0%), significantly fewer were opposed when a child was not specified as being present in the car (75.4%). Overall, 91.3% of parents had smoke-free home rules; this percentage was highest among parents of infants/ toddlers (92.3%) and lowest among parents of teens aged 14-17 years (89.0%; p<0.05). Presence of smoke-free home rules was associated negatively with smoking initiation among never smokers (AOR=0.21) and positively with quit attempts among current smokers (AOR=1.59) and sustained quitting among former smokers (AOR=1.67) (all p <0.05). CONCLUSIONS Parental smoking can expose children to SHS. Pediatricians can educate parents on the dangers of smoking around children, and the benefits of quitting.