Guest Post: teenage girls and smoking

Barts-MS often takes in school students for work experience. We ask some of the students to take on small projects and to write reports. One of our research programmes is to prevent MS. Smoking is an important risk factor for developing MS; smokers have an approximately 50% higher risk of developing MS.


A large and increasing problem in the UK is teenage smoking, particularly amongst teenage girls. We, therefore, asked Amy Sankey, one of our work experience students, to explore this issue amongst her peers at her school. 

The following is Amy's survey and report back. We were very impressed with Amy's commitment and attitude and sincerely hope she achieves her aim of getting into her University of choice to study chemistry.  



Survey Summary

A survey was conducted into the level of knowledge teenage girls had of autoimmune diseases and the impact of smoking on the risk of MS. The goal was to determine whether attention should be directed to campaigns on reducing levels of smoking in girls. To this end, they were also asked how much of an impact they felt this knowledge had on them personally and how much they felt it would impact others.

The results of the survey show that teenagers are much less aware of how smoking increases the likelihood of MS than of the other consequences. Almost everyone (97%) is aware of the increased likelihood of lung cancer from smoking. However, fewer than a third of teenage girls knew that smoking increases the likelihood of MS. There was also a significant lack of understanding of what MS or even autoimmune disease in general. These limitations of current knowledge mean that it is worthwhile in increasing campaigns which targets high school age students to increase their knowledge of both the risk posed by smoking and the dangers of smoking in relation to developing MS. The responses given show that at least some students have found this information to have an impact on them personally. The majority think it will have at least some impact on levels of teenage smoking in general.

It is therefore concluded that some form of a targeted campaign is launched within schools or to the general public to highlight the particular dangers of smoking in relation to developing MS. Many teenagers are now desensitised to hearing about how smoking causes cancer. Descriptions of the particular symptoms of MS and how these affect their lives may therefore have more of an impact than continuing to highlight the general dangers as is done currently. The results of the survey also showed that students with a greater level of knowledge about MS and also those who have a personal connection to a pwMS are less likely to consider smoking. Girls have a higher risk of MS than boys but the findings may also be applicable to boys. The overall goal is to reduce levels of teenage smoking in general.

The following is a detailed analysis of the results of the survey and suggestions for campaigns :



To conclude, the survey showed that teenagers currently have limited knowledge of MS as a disease and of how smoking impacts the likelihood of MS. There is also direct evidence from the survey that increased knowledge of MS as a disease and of these risks does discourage teenage girls from smoking, and therefore we can conclude that campaigns to increase awareness of both of the areas would be a worthwhile investment.

BIOGRAPHY



Amy Sankey is a 17-year-old student at North London Collegiate School who is planning on studying Chemistry at university. She is studying Higher Level Biology and Chemistry as part of her IB course. She undertook work experience with Professor Giovannoni last summer and has then carried out a survey into student knowledge of autoimmune diseases at her school, in order to work out how best to raise awareness of the risks of smoking in relation to MS and how to reduce levels of teenage smoking.

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