early smoking in schoolaged children with and without a diagnosis of asthma background research has shown that adolescents with asthma are as likely as and sometimes even more likely to smoke than their peers without asthma the current study examined whether the prevalence of the first active smoking experience differs for children 912 years of age diagnosed with asthma compared with children who do not have asthma the association between asthma and smoking was evaluated with logistic regression analysis controlling for socioeconomic status parental smoking and childs internalizing and externalizing behavioursmethod a nationwide sample of 1476 mother and child dyads participated of which 220 children 149 had been diagnosed with childhood asthmaresults children diagnosed with asthma were 245 times more likely to have taken a puff of a cigarette compared with children without asthma in addition the association between asthma and early smoking remained significant after including potential confounders in the regression equationdiscussion suggestions are provided for preventing schoolaged children especially youths with asthma from smoking additional research is needed to gain further insights into the mechanisms underlying the higher likelihood of early smoking among children with asthma