Kate Gawlik, The Ohio State University – Social Smoking

Is it OK to be a social smoker?

Kate Gawlik, assistant professor of clinical nursing at The Ohio State University, examines whether being a part-time smoker is just as dangerous as lighting up regularly.

Kate Gawlik graduated with her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in 2015 and is board certified as an adult and family nurse practitioner. Kate is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing at The Ohio State University. She teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. Kate’s area of expertise is cardiovascular population and preventive health. Kate has been working with the national Million Hearts initiative for 5 years and designed an educational module that has led to the screening and education of over 58,000 people nationwide. Kate was awarded the 2013 Outstanding Faculty Award and the 2017 Outstanding Leadership/Transformer award. Kate serves as the Project Manager for the Million Hearts® initiatives at OSU’s College of Nursing.

Social Smoking

There is a popularly held belief that social vices, as long as they are performed in moderation, won’t do us any real harm.

When it comes to tobacco use, this is most definitely not the case.  New research has shown that moderate, or social, smoking places someone on the same pathway toward serious health problems as the person smoking a pack or more per day.

We conducted a study of nearly 40,000 people over four years to learn if the cardiovascular screenings of those who identified themselves as social smokers and those who said they only smoked an occasional cigarette at a party or in a club were the same. 

Our findings were stunning.  Comparing regular smokers versus social users, there was virtually no difference in the risk of experiencing hypertension or high cholesterol, two of the critical precursors to heart disease.

We already knew that persistent smokers were putting their well-being at serious risk.  But now it is clear that simply opening a pack of cigarettes to socialize with friends means entering the very same on-ramp toward serious, life-shortening health problems.

This has ramifications for all healthcare providers, as well.  In a medical exam, most social cigarette users don’t identify themselves as smokers and, thus, significant health concerns can go undiagnosed. Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, and nurses should look to start asking their patients if they use tobacco in social settings.  And anti-smoking advocates should broaden their messaging to reach the occasional user.

One in every 10 Americans – millions of people — are social smokers.  Up to now, they have believed they were protected from harm by their self-imposed moderation.  This, we now know from research, is a dangerous fallacy that must be corrected.