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Are children smoke‐free at home? Using wearable cameras to study children's exposure to smoking and smoking paraphernalia in private spaces
Author(s) -
Gurtner Marcus,
Gage Ryan,
Thomson George,
Jaine Richard,
Stanley James,
Smith Moira,
Barr Michelle,
Chambers Tim,
Signal Louise
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1111/cch.12631
Subject(s) - paraphernalia , environmental health , wearable computer , medicine , advertising , geography , business , computer science , embedded system , archaeology
Abstract Background There is limited evidence available on the nature of children's exposure to smoking and smoking paraphernalia in private spaces (homes and cars). We aimed to evaluate the extent and nature of children's exposure to smoking in these settings using image data captured by wearable cameras. Methods One‐hundred and sixty‐eight children wore wearable cameras for 4 days that automatically took pictures every 7 s. Images captured in private spaces ( n = 140,818) by children living in households with a smoker ( n = 34) were screened for instances of smoking and smoking paraphernalia. Results A total of 37 incidents of smoking—four indoor, 21 outdoor, and two in‐vehicles—and 62 incidents of smoking paraphernalia were observed. Most smoking incidents in homes (21 of 33) took place outdoors. Conclusions The findings support health promotion efforts to make smokers more aware that smoking paraphernalia may normalize smoking for children. The methodology (wearable cameras) appears to have high utility for studying health behaviours in private spaces.