Beliefs about third-hand smoke and health perceptions of the preschool paediatric patients' parents

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OBJECTIVES: Millions of children suffer from the harmful effects of tobacco smoking. The aim of this study was to investigate the health perceptions of preschool paediatric patient's parents and their beliefs and attitudes towards third-hand smoke. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with the parents of pre-school paediatric patients. A questionnaire including the socio-demographic information form, the Beliefs About Third-Hand Smoke (BATHS-T) scale and the Perception of Health Scale (PHS) were applied to the participants. RESULTS: Of the 500 parents participating in the study, 74.6% were mothers. Among participants 440 (88.0%) stated that they had never heard the term third-hand smoke (THS). The mean BATHS-T score of the mothers (39.20 ± 5.79) was higher than the mean BATHS-T score of the fathers (36.94 ± 5.85) (p < 0.001). Regarding tobacco use, 10.5% of mothers and 49.6% of fathers were smokers (p < 0.001). PHS total scores were higher in those who were aware of THS (52.95 ± 7.15) compared to those who had never heard of THS (49.66 ± 6.99) (p = 0.001). Unfortunately, 17% of the children were exposed to tobacco smoke indoors in spite of tobacco bans. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, although general awareness of THS was low, it was found to be associated with health perceptions. Parents should be informed about THS to protect their children from exposure and to convince the smokers to quit.