Education linked to child smoking

New research has found those who perform well at school are less likely to smoke.

The study published in the Journal for Equity in Health today shows high-achieving students are less likely to take up smoking.

Christina Schnohr led a team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Institute of Public Health who surveyed 20,399 schoolchildren from the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

She said: “Above average academic achievement was associated with lower risk of smoking.

“Teachers and politicians may find this information useful, and allocate resources to give higher priority to a supportive environment in schools especially for children and adolescents in lower social groups. This might contribute to reducing smoking in this group.”

Today’s study also stated that children from less well-off families are more likely to smoke and are less likely to perform well at school ? although this latter effect was least pronounced in the UK, the authors claim.

However, those poorer children who did perform well in class were also less likely to be smokers.