December 14, 2007

Addressing parental smoking

Millions of American families may soon be on their way to living smoke-free lives through a new research initiative led by Jonathan Winickoff, MD, MPH, of the Center for Children and Adolescent Health Policy at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children. The National Institutes of Health recently awarded Winickoff a $4 million grant to fund a national trial exploring ways to eliminate childhood exposure to secondhand smoke by helping parents quit the habit.

At the heart of Winickoff's trial is an innovative concept: targeting adult smokers in a pediatric setting. With many parents often visiting their children's primary care physicians more regularly than they seek care for themselves, pediatric appointments provide clinicians with a unique opportunity to address the smoking habits of parents. Based on this knowledge, Winickoff and his team developed an intervention to address parental smoking in the pediatric setting, employing techniques such as counseling, referral to smoking cessation services and pharmacologic management of tobacco dependence. Set to launch in 2008, the trial will recruit patients from Pediatric Research in Office Settings, a research network developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and serving nearly three million children in the United States.