Environmental Factors Major Player for Women Lighting Up

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Women are much more likely than men to start smoking because of environmental factors, whereas men are more influenced by genetic factors, based on new research out of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

In this comprehensive twin study of more than 32,000 pairs, researchers also found men and women did not in fact differ in reasons behind continued smoking, which were largely based on genetic factors. Lead researcher Ann Hamilton, Ph.D., says, "Of those who smoke, it seems that there's a resistance to stopping that has a genetic component."

Environmental factors may include peer influences, social networks, concern about bodyweight gain, and tobacco in the media. Genetic factors encompass things like nicotine metabolism-affecting genes and genes that affect brain sensitivity to nicotine.

Hamilton concludes, "The genetic factors that are related to continued smoking are much less able to be affected by interventions."

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SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, 2006;15:1189-1197