“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

Thomas A. Arcury, Grisel Trejo, DaKysha Moore, Timothy D. Howard, Sara A. Quandt, Edward H. Ip and Joanne C. Sandberg
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Thomas A. Arcury: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
Grisel Trejo: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
DaKysha Moore: Department of Visual, Performing, & Communication Arts, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, NC 28216, USA
Timothy D. Howard: Department of Biochemistry, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
Sara A. Quandt: Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
Edward H. Ip: Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
Joanne C. Sandberg: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 22, 1-12

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.

Keywords: tobacco control and prevention; environmental tobacco smoke; minority health; health beliefs; ethnomedicine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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