Abstract
(1) Background: The home environment is a major source of Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) exposure among children especially in early childhood. ETS exposure is an important health risk among children and can cause severe and chronic diseases, such as asthma, bronchitis, and premature death. However, ETS exposure at home has often been neglected in the Chinese families. Identification of factors that facilitate or otherwise hamper the adoption of home smoking ban will help in the design and implementation of evidence-based intervention programs. This study identifies factors correlated with home smoking bans in Chinese families with children. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional survey of parents living in Nanning city, Guangxi Province, China with at least one smoker and a child in the household was conducted between September, 2013 and January, 2014. A Chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables differences between the parents who had home smoking bans and those with no home smoking ban. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors correlated with home smoking bans. (3) Results: 969 completed questionnaires were collected with a response rate of 92.29% (969/1050). Of the respondents (n = 969), 14.34% had complete home smoking bans. Factors that were associated with home smoking bans were: having no other smokers in the family (OR = 2.173), attaining education up to high school (OR = 2.471), believing that paternal smoking would increase the risk of lower respiratory tract illnesses (OR = 2.755), perceiving the fact that smoking cigarettes in the presence of the child will hurt the child’s health (OR = 1.547), believing that adopting a no smoking policy at home is very important (OR = 2.816), and being confident to prevent others to smoke at home (OR = 1.950). Additionally, parents who perceived difficulty in adopting a no smoking policy at home would not have a home smoking ban (OR = 0.523). (4) Conclusions: A home smoking ban is not widely adopted by families of hospitalized children in Guangxi Province, China. To protect the health of children, there is a need to develop and test interventions to promote home smoking bans. Factors identified as predictors of home smoking ban should be considered in the design of interventions.
Highlights
Secondhand Smoke (SHS) is defined as “the combination of smoke emitted from the burning end of a cigarette or other tobacco products and smoke exhaled by the smoker” [1]
Study showed that the impact of at-home-smoking practices on children’s environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure is highlighted by the significant and progressive increases in urinary cotinine levels from children not living with smoker(s) to children living with smoker(s) who do not smoke at home to children living with smoker(s) who only smoke at home when the child is not there, and to children living with smoker(s) who smoke at home even if the child is in [7]
The prevalence of home smoking bans reported by parents of hospitalized children was 14.34%, which is much lower than the reported prevalence of 38% among Chinese Americans [26]
Summary
Secondhand Smoke (SHS) is defined as “the combination of smoke emitted from the burning end of a cigarette or other tobacco products and smoke exhaled by the smoker” [1]. Protano and Vitali proposed that “environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)” be used as a more inclusive term to describe any tobacco smoke exposure outside of active smoking [2], to describe SHS and THS. ETS is one of the most common and important sources of indoor air pollution in the home environment. Eliminating indoor smoking practices in households can greatly protect children from the health effects of ETS exposure [6]. Implementing smoke-free policies in work places and public places have been proven to contribute to improving the public’s knowledge of the harm of SHS exposure and changes in their smoking behavior, which could lead to increased adoption of voluntary home smoking bans [6,8]
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