The Effect of a Pilot Pediatric In-Patient Department-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention on Parental Smoking and Children’s Secondhand Smoke (SHS) Exposure in Guangxi, China

Abstract

Children's exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) at home has numerous adverse health effects. This study evaluated the effects of a pediatric in-patient department-based pilot smoking cessation intervention for household members to reduce children's SHS exposure and encourage smoking cessation. A pre-post test design study was designed to assess the effectiveness of a telephone counseling intervention on household members of hospitalized children in pediatric departments. Data were collected with a standardized Chinese language questionnaire. At the three-month follow-up survey, the proportions of household members who reported adopting complete smoking restriction at home (55%), did not smoke at home at all (37%), did not allow others to smoke in the car (70%), or did not allow others to smoke around the child (57%) were significantly higher than the self-reported responses at the baseline survey. The proportions of household members who reported smoking at home (49%) and in the car (22%) were significantly lower than the baseline survey. Overall, 7% of the participants had reported quitting smoking after three months. Pediatric in-patient department-based telephone counseling for smoking cessation was found to be acceptable to Chinese parents. The intervention encouraged few parents to quit smoking, but encouraged more parents to take measures to reduce children's SHS exposure.

Effectiveness of Interventions to Reduce Exposure to Parental Secondhand Smoke at Home among Children in China: A Systematic Review

“…A final sample of 13 studies was included in this review (Table S1). These studies were conducted in nine places: Beijing [22,23], Changchun [24], Fenyang [25], Guangzhou [26,27], Hong Kong [28,29,30], Nanning [31], Shanghai [32], Taiwan [33], and Tianjin [34]. Study designs include randomized controlled trials ( n = 7) [24,28,29,30,32,33,34]; control trials without randomization ( n = 2) [22,25]; and pre-post studies ( n = 4) [23,26,27,31].…”

“…These studies were conducted in nine places: Beijing [22,23], Changchun [24], Fenyang [25], Guangzhou [26,27], Hong Kong [28,29,30], Nanning [31], Shanghai [32], Taiwan [33], and Tianjin [34]. Study designs include randomized controlled trials ( n = 7) [24,28,29,30,32,33,34]; control trials without randomization ( n = 2) [22,25]; and pre-post studies ( n = 4) [23,26,27,31]. The target subjects of the interventions included household members ( n = 6) [22,23,25,26,31,32]; family units (i.e., non-smoking mothers and smoking fathers) ( n = 3) [24,29,30]; smoking parents ( n = 2) [28,34]; and parent-child dyads ( n = 2) [22,27].…”

“…Study designs include randomized controlled trials ( n = 7) [24,28,29,30,32,33,34]; control trials without randomization ( n = 2) [22,25]; and pre-post studies ( n = 4) [23,26,27,31]. The target subjects of the interventions included household members ( n = 6) [22,23,25,26,31,32]; family units (i.e., non-smoking mothers and smoking fathers) ( n = 3) [24,29,30]; smoking parents ( n = 2) [28,34]; and parent-child dyads ( n = 2) [22,27]. The study participants were recruited from maternal-child health centers [22,23,24,28,30], primary schools [26,27,33], community settings [24,25,35], or hospitals [29,31].…”

“…Eight studies [22,25,28,29,30,32,33,34] had one intervention group and one comparison group; while one study had two intervention groups: a group with a counseling intervention and a group with a counseling plus text messages intervention [24]. Four studies were one-group pre-post studies [23,26,27,31].…”

“…The interventions involved the following components: (1) self-help materials ( n = 11) [22,23,24,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34], which included information about the health risks of SHS exposure, instructions for creating a smoke-free home, protecting children from SHS exposure, and tips for smoking cessation; (2) prompts to warn against smoking at home (e.g., a poster that says “Dad, the smell of your smoke makes me uncomfortable” or a card emphasizing that smoking is forbidden in any place inside the house) ( n = 6) [24,29,30,31,32,33]; (3) individual counseling ( n = 6) [28,30,31,32,33,34]; (4) text messages via phone ( n = 1) [24]; (5) group counseling ( n = 3) [24,30,33]; (6); biochemical feedback ( n = 1) [33]; (7); and health education ( n = 5) [22,25,26,27,29].…”