With politicians and health officials around the world demanding a return to lockdowns, another study is revealing the potentially deadly ramifications if they do.
The Daily Mail reports that researchers from the University of Sheffield and the University College of London stated that the previous lockdown imposed by the British government resulted in a 25% increase in the number of young people who started smoking, and this included people who had previously quit.
This increase was largely blamed on the stress associated with the lockdowns.
Based on their study of adults between the ages of 18 to 34, the researchers concluded that there are an additional 650,000 people in that age group who are now smoking.
The long-term impact of this increased smoking will not show up for several years.
Their study, reported in the journal called Addiction, also showed that there was an increase in what it termed as ‘high-risk’ drinking in all ages groups due to the lockdown as well.
The authors also noted that the lockdowns particularly impacted the poor or disadvantaged:
“However, socio-economic disparities in patterns of drinking behaviour were evident: high-risk drinking increased by more among women and those from less advantaged social grades, but the rate of alcohol reduction attempts increased only among the more advantaged social grades.”
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