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Irish tobacco legislation increases smoking cessation in hospital patients
Kirsten Doherty, Researcher, School of Public Health and Population Science, University College Dublin
Abstract
Population policies such as smoking restrictions may help persuade smokers to stop smoking. A hospital admission is seen as an ideal opportunity to provide smoking cessation interventions and hospital smoking restrictions may aid quitting. The Irish smoking ban came into effect during the follow-up phase of a cohort study examining factors related to smoking cessation following hospital discharge. This enabled the impact of the ban on smoking cessation to be assessed.
A quasi-systematic sample of 1086 smokers admitted to an urban teaching hospital was interviewed, with follow-up after seven months. Reported smoking cessation at follow-up was bio chemically validated.
72% were contactable for follow-up. The overall validated point prevalence smoking cessation rate was 11.4%. Patients whose follow-up interview took place after the introduction of the smoking ban were significantly more likely to have quit than those followed up before the ban (OR: 1.9; 95%CI: 1.3 – 2.9). Agreement with the ban increased after implementation, from 53.1% to 69.6% (p = 0.002). Agreement was associated with quitting (OR: 2.2; 95%CI: 1.4 – 3.6). Those followed-up after the ban reported lower passive smoke exposure, an average of 8.5 hours/week compared with 11.3 hours/week before the ban (p = 0.066).
The introduction of the Irish smoking ban increased the rate of quitting in this group of discharged hospital patients and appears to have reduced their passive smoke exposure. This study adds to the evidence of the impact of such bans on the ability of individuals to stop smoking.
Biography
Kirsten Doherty has a B.Sc. in Human Nutrition and a Masters in Public Health. Her background until 2001 was in hospital nutrition. Since then she has been based in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Health Promotion in St. Vincent’s University Hospital where she is carrying out research into smoking cessation. She is currently completing a PhD thesis for submission to the School of Public Health and Population Science at University College Dublin.
Kirsten Doherty
School of Public Health and Population Science
Woodview House, University College Dublin
Dublin
Ireland
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