Children whose parents smoke are more likely to take up the habit themselves, a survey conducted by the health department in Shanxi Province has shown.

The study of smokers aged under 18, whose results were published recently, found that a large majority said they first got the idea by seeing their parents smoking.

Almost 79 percent of respondents with two smoking parents said they started for that reason, while 66.7 percent of those whose mothers smoked said the same, the study reported.