The alarming number of smokers have increased public health concerns regarding the effects of second-hand smoke (SHS) on non-smokers, especially amongst pregnant women and unborn babies. This paper aims to review the existing interventions used to reduce SHS exposure amongst non-smoking pregnant women. This review was guided by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses) review method. Published articles were identified through three databases: ProQuest, Science Direct, and Scopus within the 2010–2021 timeframe. Articles related to the intervention to reduce SHS exposure among non-smoking pregnant women were included. Nine studies were identified and reviewed. Most of the preventive interventions primarily focused on pregnant women as the target group, whereas a few interventions directly focused on changing the smoking behaviour of their spouses. This review suggests that using theories as a foundation in designing the intervention effectively reduces exposure to SHS among non-smoking pregnant women. The main limitation as reported by most studies was the lack of biochemical verification. Thus, future intervention should consider both pregnant women and their smoking spouses as the target group and include relevant theories in clinical intervention.

Introduction: Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure affects not only the maternal wellbeing but also unborn baby. This study aims to develop a spouse-based educational intervention to reduce SHS exposure by examining the understanding and perception of both pregnant women and their smoking spouses. Methods: Using a sequential exploratory mixed-method research design, this study will be conducted through four phases. In the first phase, a qualitative study will be conducted to examine the understanding and perception of pregnant women and their smoking spouses regarding secondhand smoke exposure. In the second phase, the content of the educational intervention will be designed based on the outcomes of the first phase and from the literature review. Validation of the designed intervention will be conducted by experts to assess the accuracy of the contents in phase 3. After the validation, a pilot study will be conducted to measure the comprehensiveness of the module. The feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention will be measured in phase four by a pre-test and post-test study design. Expected outcome and conclusion: The designed educational intervention module of SHS exposure can be used as a breakthrough point to empower non-smoking pregnant women to protect themselves from secondhand smoke exposure, and also to facilitate the smoking spouse to change their smoking behavior, and thus promote the smoke-free home.

Background: Smoking has been primarily studied as a public health problem involving mapping continued smoking patterns and interventions designed to decrease smoking prevalence. This paper aims to discuss the available literature on smokers’ perception on their health, the smokers’ health-seeking behaviour and factors influence the smokers’ continuity in smoking. Method: Review literature conducted by using databases such as Science Direct, Sage Journals, Wiley, PubMed, and Scopus with the keywords smoking, health perception, health seeking behavior, health status, and health screening. Result: Eighteen articles were reviewed, selected, and summarized. These include six qualitative studies, ten quantitative studies, and two randomized control studies. Findings showed that smokers underestimate the effects of smoking and overestimate their ability to quit before becoming addicted. Thus, communication of health risk must be in line with smokers’ perception of health risks which they tend to minimize and ignore. Smokers’ perceived smoking bring benefits and they could retain control over their actions but could not easily stop having frequent desires to smoke. Also, healthcare providers should develop passion, equipped with expected skills and aid while intervene smokers’, which might increase their motivation to quit smoking. Conclusion: Further study perhaps could bring a better understanding on the factors contribute to smokers’ judgment in making decisions whether to continue or stop smoking and how these factors influence their actions. Smoking rates might be reduced if smokers understood the risks of smoking, which were more accurate as evidenced by a medical check-up and held to the beliefs on smoking-related risks that led to their firm decision to stop smoking.

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