The Passive Smoking Is an Important Risk Factor of Allergic Diseases in Korean Adolescents

Rationale: Smoking and drinking are hazard behaviors threaten health in adolescents and influence to develop allergic diseases, but little is known in Korean adolescents. We sought to evaluate the association between smoking, drinking and allergic diseases.

Methods: We used the data of the 2014 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey that 72,060 Korean middle and high school students participated in. Dependent variables were asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR) and atopic dermatitis (AD) diagnosed within 1 year, and its treatment within last 1 year. Independent variables were current cigarette smoking, passive smoking, current drinking and dangerous level of drinking. Multivariate analysis was done to investigate the relationship between smoking, drinking and allergic diseases.

Results: The prevalence of current smoking was 14.0% in male, 4.0% in female and 9.2% in total. Passive smoking was 32.8% in male, 34.9% in female and 33.8% in total. Current drinking and dangerous level of drinking were 16.7%, 7.9% in total, respectively. Current smoking was a risk factor of asthma (OR=1.420, P=0.000). Passive smoking was a risk factor in asthma (OR=1.256, P=0.000), asthma treatment (OR=1.248, P=0.000), AR (OR=1.051, P=0.014), AD and its treatment (OR=1.127, P=0.000; OR=1.128, P=0.000). Current drinking was related to AD (OR=1.182 P=0.003) and dangerous level of drinking wasn’t a risk factor.

Conclusions: Smoking was a significant risk factor of allergic diseases than drinking. The rate of passive smoking was higher than current smoking and was revealed a risk factor of allergic diseases’ development. Prevention strategy primarily for passive smoking should be implemented to prevent allergic diseases in Korean adolescents.