Lee B, Levy DE, Macy JT, et al. - Researchers aimed at evaluating the prospective correlation between smoking trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood and mental health in later adulthood. In addition, they examined if concurrent co-use of alcohol and marijuana mediates this relationship.

• Data drawn from rounds 1 to 18 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), a nationally representative cohort study spanning 21 years, were used for this longitudinal study.

• The analytical sample included a total of 8,570 individuals (48.9% female, 66.2% white) who completed survey items about smoking behaviors on at least half the data collection opportunities in adolescence and young adulthood.

• Continued smoking, especially early-onset and heavy smoking from adolescence to young adulthood, seems to exaggerate the risk of poor mental health later in mid-adulthood.

• Such risk may reduce on quitting smoking in young adulthood even among early-onset smokers.

• In mediation analyses, multiple substance use is highlighted to have a role in this pathway.