“It’s Worse to Breathe It Than to Smoke It”: Secondhand Smoke Beliefs in a Group of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States

Arcury, Thomas A.; Trejo, Grisel; Moore, DaKysha; Howard, Timothy D.; Quandt, Sara A.; Ip, Edward H.; Sandberg, Joanne C.

doi:10.3390/ijerph17228630

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“It’s Worse to Breathe It Than to Smoke It”: Secondhand Smoke Beliefs in a Group of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States

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Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA

Department of Visual, Performing, & Communication Arts, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, NC 28216, USA

Department of Biochemistry, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA

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Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA

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Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(22), 8630; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228630

Received: 28 October 2020 / Revised: 16 November 2020 / Accepted: 17 November 2020 / Published: 20 November 2020

(This article belongs to the Section Health Behavior, Chronic Disease and Health Promotion)

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Abstract

This analysis describes beliefs about secondhand smoke and its health effects held by Mexican and Central American immigrants in North Carolina. Data from 60 semistructured, in-depth interviews were subjected to saliency analysis. Participant discussions of secondhand smoke centered on four domains: (1) familiarity and definition of secondhand smoke, (2) potency of secondhand smoke, (3) general health effects of secondhand smoke, and (4) child health effects of secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke was generally believed to be more harmful than primary smoke. Mechanisms for the potency and health effects of secondhand smoke involved the smell of secondhand smoke, secondhand smoke being an infection and affecting the immune system, and personal strength being protective of secondhand smoke. Understanding these health beliefs informs a framework for further health education and intervention to reduce smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in this vulnerable population. View Full-Text

Keywords: tobacco control and prevention; environmental tobacco smoke; minority health; health beliefs; ethnomedicine

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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MDPI and ACS Style

Arcury, T.A.; Trejo, G.; Moore, D.; Howard, T.D.; Quandt, S.A.; Ip, E.H.; Sandberg, J.C. “It’s Worse to Breathe It Than to Smoke It”: Secondhand Smoke Beliefs in a Group of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8630. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228630

AMA Style

Arcury TA, Trejo G, Moore D, Howard TD, Quandt SA, Ip EH, Sandberg JC. “It’s Worse to Breathe It Than to Smoke It”: Secondhand Smoke Beliefs in a Group of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(22):8630. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228630

Chicago/Turabian Style

Arcury, Thomas A., Grisel Trejo, DaKysha Moore, Timothy D. Howard, Sara A. Quandt, Edward H. Ip, and Joanne C. Sandberg. 2020. "“It’s Worse to Breathe It Than to Smoke It”: Secondhand Smoke Beliefs in a Group of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 22: 8630. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228630

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“It’s Worse to Breathe It Than to Smoke It”: Secondhand Smoke Beliefs in a Group of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States

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