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Smoke near me and I smoke too': evaluation of a smoke‐free homes program in central Sydney, NSW
Author(s) -
Bedford K.,
Wen L.M.,
Hua M.,
Kehoe P.,
Rissel C.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
health promotion journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 2201-1617
pISSN - 1036-1073
DOI - 10.1071/he03108
Subject(s) - smoke , population health , health economics , public health , environmental health , community health , medicine , engineering , waste management , nursing
Issues addressed To implement and evaluate an intervention designed to increase knowledge of the harms of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) upon young children and support the implementation of harm reduction strategies among parents/carers of young children to reduce the children's exposure to ETS in a local government area of inner Sydney. Method An intervention was developed (based on themes derived from focus groups and the literature) and implemented over four months from February to May 1999. Pre, post and six‐month follow‐up intercept surveys were conducted with parents of children younger than seven years in the intervention area and a comparison area. Results There were significant increases in prompted and unprompted recall of the intervention message in the intervention area, with prompted recall being sustained at six month follow‐up. Knowledge of ineffective strategies to protect children from ETS also significantly increased with a significant association between increased knowledge and recall of the intervention message. There was a non‐statistically significant increase in the proportion of smoke‐free homes from 67% to 75%. Conclusion Although the intervention was well implemented, more substantial and longer intervention is needed to increase the proportion of smoke‐free homes.