Exploration of prisoners' attitudes and experiences of cigarette smoking in the presence of children and pregnant women

Background: The prevalence of smoking among incarcerated adults is over three times that of the general population. Although tobacco smoke exposure is a known public health problem, there is limited research on the attitudes and experiences of incarcerated adults regarding their smoking around children and pregnant women which is the focus of the present study. Methods: 247 incarcerated male and female adults were recruited eight weeks prior to release to participate in the Project WISE smoking relapse prevention clinical trial. Baseline surveys included 14 questions regarding behaviors and attitudes toward cigarette smoking in the presence of children and pregnant women. Results: Almost two-thirds of participants reported that they never or infrequently smoked around children. Exploratory principal component analyses were performed and revealed four factors: 1) smoking in the presence of children and concern for their health, 2) smoking restrictions in the home, 3) risks of smoke exposure to pregnant women and the fetus; and 4) importance of not smoking around pregnant women and quitting smoking. Chronbach's alphas ranged from 0.64 to 0.84. Results demonstrated construct, discriminant and predictive validity of the factors. Conclusions: Our results suggest that meaningful constructs were derived regarding prisoners' attitudes and smoking experiences in the presence of children and pregnant women although further investigation is required. Additionally, individuals who continue to smoke around pregnant women and children require education regarding the adverse health effects related to tobacco smoke exposure.