Household Smoking Restriction and Second-Hand Smoke Exposure in Tao-Yuan, Taiwan

Background:According National Health Interview Survey of Taiwan in 2005, 29.8% adults were exposed to secondhand smoke in Tao-Yuan County. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of the household smoking restriction related to family exposure of secondhand smoke.

Methods:7434 non smokers, selected by a stratified cluster random sampling method, participated in a telephone survey. Hierarchical logistic regression were conducting by sex, age, education, occupation and marital status at the fist step,living area, anti-smoking knowledge and attitude at the second step,and the household smoking restriction at the final step.

Results:27% of non-smoking adults were exposure to household secondhand smoke. After controlling demographic variables, the rural and mountain area were higher household secondhand smoke than urban area (OR=1.43,CI=1.22~1.69;OR=1.53,CI=1.14~2.05).The higher anti-smoking knowledge and attitude were less to exposure household secondhand smoke (OR=0.94,CI=0.89~0.98;OR=0.88, CI=0.86~0.9). No smoke free restriction families were higher second-hand smoke exposure than smoke free restriction (OR=12.17,CI=9.59~15.44).

Conclusion:The findings support the evidence that smoking restriction is an effective strategy for reducing secondhand smoke exposure. We suggest that tobacco control programs should consider to enhance the household smoking restriction policy in the future.