Smoke Signals: The Intergenerational Transmission of Smoking Behavior

In this paper, we investigate the intergenerational transmission of smoking behavior from parents to their children using data from the German Socio- Economic Panel, surveyed in 1999 including 813 youths aged 16 through 19. We find strong evidence, that parental smoking significantly increases the probability that their children likewise become smokers. Youths living in families with both parents smoking are 3.3 times more likely to smoke themselves, while a smoking father raises the probability by the factor 2.8 and a smoking mother by the factor 2.1. Further, we treat single-parent households separately and control for other socioeconomic factors concerning the youths' smoking decision like household income, educational status and working status. Youths' leisure activities and personal attitudes are taken into consideration to test for determinants influencing youth smoking outside from the family context. Thus policies targeted at reducing juvenile smoking may fail, if parents' behavior is not taken into account.Intergenerational Transmission, Smoking, Family Composition, GSOEP

Smoke signals : the intergenerational transmission of smoking behavior

In this paper, we investigate the intergenerational transmission of smoking behavior from parents to their children using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, surveyed in 1999 including 813 youths aged 16 through 19. We find strong evidence, that parental smoking significantly increases the probability that their children likewise become smokers. Youths living in families with both parents smoking are 3.3 times more likely to smoke themselves, while a smoking father raises the probability by the factor 2.8 and a smoking mother by the factor 2.1. Further, we treat single-parent households separately and control for other socio-economic factors concerning the youths' smoking decision like household income, educational status and working status. Youths' leisure activities and personal attitudes are taken into consideration to test for determinants influencing youth smoking outside from the family context. Thus policies targeted at reducing juvenile smoking may fail, if parents' behavior is not taken into account

Smoke signals The intergenerational transmission of smoking behavior

'In this paper, we investigate the intergenerational transmission of smoking behavior from parents to their children using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, surveyed in 1999 including 813 youths aged 16 through 19. We find strong evidence, that parental smoking significantly increases the probability that their children likewise become smokers. Youths living in families with both parents smoking are 3.3 times more likely to smoke themselves, while a smoking father raises the probability by the factor 2.8 and a smoking mother by the factor 2.1. Further, we treat single-parent households separately and control for other socio-economic factors concerning the youths' smoking decision like household income, educational status and working status. Youths' leisure activities and personal attitudes are taken into consideration to test for determinants influencing youth smoking outside from the family context. Thus policies targeted at reducing juvenile smoking may fail, if parents' behavior is not taken into account.' (author's abstract)Die Verfasser untersuchen den intergenerationellen Transfer von Rauchverhalten von Eltern auf ihre Kinder auf der Basis von Daten des deutschen Soziooekonomischen Panels 1999 unter Einschluss einer Substichprobe von 813 Jugendlichen zwischen 16 und 19 Jahren. Es zeigen sich deutliche Hinweise darauf, dass Kinder von Rauchern ebenfalls Raucher werden. Jugendliche aus Familien, in denen beide Eltern rauchen, rauchen mit 3,3fach hoeherer Wahrscheinlichkeit selbst auch; ein Raucher als Vater erhoeht die Wahrscheinlichkeit um den Faktor 2,8, eine Raucherin als Mutter um den Faktor 2,1. Die Verfasser behandeln Haushalte mit allein erziehenden Eltern gesondert und kontrollieren andere soziooekonomischer Determinanten jugendlichen Rauchverhaltens wie Haushaltseinkommen, Bildungsstatus und Erwerbsstatus. Als Determinanten des Rauchverhaltens ausserhalb des Familienkontexts werden Freizeitverhalten und persoenliche Einstellungen der Jugendlichen beruecksichtigt. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass politische Massnahmen zur Reduzierung des Rauchens im Jugendalter fehl schlagen koennen, wenn das Verhalten der Eltern nicht beruecksichtigt wird. (ICEUebers)German title: Rauchzeichen: die intergenerationelle Uebertragung von RauchverhaltenAvailable from http://www.diw.de/deutsch/publikationen/diskussionspapiere/docs/papers/dp277.pdf / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Dietary Fructose and Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes1–3

Studies in both healthy and diabetic subjects demonstrated that fructose produced a smaller postprandial rise in plasma glucose and serum insulin than other common carbohydrates. Substitution of dietary fructose for other carbohydrates produced a 13% reduction in mean plasma glucose in a study of type 1 and type 2 diabetic subjects. However, there is concern that fructose may aggravate lipemia. In 1 study, day-long plasma triglycerides in healthy men were 32% greater while they consumed a high-fructose diet than while they consumed a high-glucose diet. There is also concern that fructose may be a factor contributing to the growing worldwide prevalence of obesity. Fructose stimulates insulin secretion less than does glucose and glucose-containing carbohydrates. Because insulin increases leptin release, lower circulating insulin and leptin after fructose ingestion might inhibit appetite less than consumption of other carbohydrates and lead to increased energy intake. However, there is no convincing experimental evidence that dietary fructose actually does increase energy intake. There is also no evidence that fructose accelerates protein glycation. High fructose intake has been associated with increased risk of gout in men and increased risk of kidney stones. Dietary fructose appears to have adverse effects on postprandial serum triglycerides, so adding fructose in large amounts to the diet is undesirable. Glucose may be a suitable replacement sugar. The fructose that occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables provides only a modest amount of dietary fructose and should not be of concern

Clinical research strategies for fructose metabolism.

Fructose and simple sugars are a substantial part of the western diet, and their influence on human health remains controversial. Clinical studies in fructose nutrition have proven very difficult to conduct and interpret. NIH and USDA sponsored a workshop on 13-14 November 2012, "Research Strategies for Fructose Metabolism," to identify important scientific questions and parameters to be considered while designing clinical studies. Research is needed to ascertain whether there is an obesogenic role for fructose-containing sugars via effects on eating behavior and energy balance and whether there is a dose threshold beyond which these sugars promote progression toward diabetes and liver and cardiovascular disease, especially in susceptible populations. Studies tend to fall into 2 categories, and design criteria for each are described. Mechanistic studies are meant to validate observations made in animals or to elucidate the pathways of fructose metabolism in humans. These highly controlled studies often compare the pure monosaccharides glucose and fructose. Other studies are focused on clinically significant disease outcomes or health behaviors attributable to amounts of fructose-containing sugars typically found in the American diet. These are designed to test hypotheses generated from short-term mechanistic or epidemiologic studies and provide data for health policy. Discussion brought out the opinion that, although many mechanistic questions concerning the metabolism of monosaccharide sugars in humans remain to be addressed experimentally in small highly controlled studies, health outcomes research meant to inform health policy should use large, long-term studies using combinations of sugars found in the typical American diet rather than pure fructose or glucose