青少年吸烟引发健康问题

 　　SAN FRANCISCO, July 29 (Xinhua) -- A new study by researchers in the United States and Norway indicates that teenagers who do smoke daily are reporting more health complaints than in years past.

　　Marc Braverman, lead author and a professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University (OSU), said while smoking is on the decline among adults and adolescents in most places around the world, "some adolescents smoke as an attempt to cope with their health problems, and that subgroup may represent a growing proportion of teen smokers¹."Teens who smoke daily found to have more health complaints"Teens who smoke report significantly higher levels of health complaints than nonsmoking teens, and we found that this gap has widened over the years, even as the overall prevalence of teen smoking has dropped," he said.

　　For the study, published in the journal Nicotine² and Tobacco Research, researchers at OSU and their colleagues at University of Bergen and Norwegian Institute of Public Health used data from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children study, an international collaborative project sponsored by the World Health Organization that began in the 1980s and currently includes 43 countries, where surveys of 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds are conducted every four years.

　　The researchers examined smoking behavior and health problems among 15-year-olds over five waves of the survey, from 1993-94 to 2009-10, in Norway, which saw dramatic declines in smoking rates over that time period; and as part of the survey, the students were asked about their smoking behavior and how often they experienced subjective³ physical and psychological health complaints such as headache, stomachache, backache, dizziness, irritability⁴, nervousness, feeling "low" and sleep difficulties.

　　In addition to health complaints, the researchers found that girls, in general, reported more complaints than boys, and the difference between the sexes was significantly larger among smoking teens than nonsmoking teens. In particular, girls who smoked daily reported higher levels of complaints than any other subgroup, Braverman said, adding that the data did not allow for an explanation of the reason for the finding, but the study raises concerns that adolescent girls might be at especially high risk for health problems associated with smoking.

　　If teens are smoking as a coping mechanism⁵ for physical or psychological problems, they may be at greater risk for dependence⁶ and addiction⁷ than their peers who are smoking because of peer or social influences, he said. "For those teens who smoke to cope with health problems, getting them to stop will likely require different strategies and more intensive intervention⁸ efforts than those that are commonly used. A 'stop smoking' media campaign probably won't be enough."The researchers believe it is the first time that this shifting relationship between daily smoking and health complaints in adolescence⁹ has been reported.

　　As smoking rates decline, reducing them further becomes more challenging. Some researchers believe that the remaining smokers tend to be more "hard-core" smokers, who have been smoking for long periods and either do not wish to quit or believe they would not be successful if they tried, Braverman said, noting that understanding the links between health and smoking among teens will help public health officials determine better smoking cessation strategies for that age group.

 

1 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。

2 nicotine   

n.(化)尼古丁，烟碱

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily.许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily.许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。

3 subjective   

a.主观(上)的，个人的

参考例句：

• The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
• A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。

4 irritability   

n.易怒

参考例句：

• It was the almost furtive restlessness and irritability that had possessed him. 那是一种一直纠缠着他的隐秘的不安和烦恼。
• All organisms have irritability while alive. 所有生物体活着时都有应激性。

5 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

6 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

7 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

8 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

9 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。