Disadvantaged Parents' Engagement with a National Secondhand Smoke in the Home Mass Media Campaign: A Qualitative Study.

Neneh Rowa-Dewar,Amanda Amos

doi:10.3390/ijerph13090901

Abstract

Mass media campaigns can be effective in tobacco control but may widen health inequalities if they fail to engage disadvantaged smokers. This qualitative study explored how parents with young children living in disadvantaged circumstances engaged with a national campaign which aimed to raise awareness of the importance of smokefree homes. Individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with 17 parents before and after the Scottish 2014 “Right Outside” mass media campaign. A conceptual framework exploring meaningful exposure (recall and understanding), motivational responses (protecting children from secondhand smoke (SHS)) and opportunities to act (barriers) was used to thematically analyse the findings. Campaign recall and engagement, and motivation to protect children were high. Parents identified with the dramatized scenario and visual impact of SHS harm to children in the TV advertisement. Some reported changed smoking practices. However, supervising young children in limited accommodation when caring alone constrained opportunities to smoke outside. Instead, parents described actions other than smoking outside that they had taken or were planning to take to create smokefree homes. Mass media campaigns using emotive, real-life circumstances can be effective in engaging parents about SHS. However, the behavioural impact may be limited because of difficult home environments and circumstances.

Highlights

Substantial international evidence on the negative health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) exists, for children for whom these effects include reduced lung function, asthma, glue ear, and bronchitis [1,2]
13 of the 17 parents had seen and mentioned the TV advert when asked to recall anything about secondhand smoking that they had seen in the media in recent months, and two mothers who had seen the adverts quoted the campaign messages unprompted
One parent recalled hearing the radio advert, another had seen a campaign poster in the local pharmacy, but parents had not seen the community events or the website. Demonstrating their recall and understanding of the messages portrayed in the TV. Advert, participants summarised these in their own words: “I think it’s quite good, it’s getting the message across

Summary

Introduction

Substantial international evidence on the negative health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) exists, for children for whom these effects include reduced lung function, asthma, glue ear, and bronchitis [1,2]. Reducing children’s SHS exposure is, an important aim of tobacco control. SHS exposure reduced in adults and children following the implementation of comprehensive smokefree public places policies in countries such as Scotland (in 2006) and England (in 2007) [3,4,5]. Smokefree policies do not encompass private homes where children spend most of their time. The decline in SHS exposure has been greatest in socioeconomically advantaged groups, thereby increasing social inequalities in children’s SHS exposure [5]. In Scotland, 33% of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged children are exposed to SHS in homes compared to

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Discussion

Conclusion