That's the finding from a new study published online this week in the medical journal Pediatrics.
Researchers from the Tobacco Free Research Institute in Dublin, Ireland, and from the Harvard School of Public Health reviewed data on more than 55,000 U.S. children under the age of 12. (The kids' parents were interviewed as part of the 2007 National Survey on Children's Health.) Of all the kids who grew up in smoke-free homes, 8.6% of them — or about one in 12 — had been diagnosed with at least one neurobehavioral condition. But among kids who lived with a smoker, more than twice as many — 20.4%, or one in five — had been diagnosed.
The study authors warn that that their findings so far are "associational and not necessarily causal," which means that it cannot be known for sure whether secondhand smoke truly causes ADHD, learning disabilities and conduct disorders, or whether there's something else that makes kids of smokers more likely to develop neurobehavioral disorders.
However, the researchers attempted to adjust statistically for other factors they thought might explain the correlation: things like the child's sex, race, and age, as well as the poverty status of the household, the mother's education, whether both parents lived at home, and whether the child was born with low birth weight.
Secondhand Smoke ADHD
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