TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of a smoke-free policy on smoking prevalence on hospital grounds
T2 - A before-after study
AU - Garritsen, Heike H.
AU - Vermeulen, Jentien M.
AU - Rozema, Andrea D.
AU - van Lonkhuijzen, Luc R. C. W.
AU - Kunst, Anton E.
N1 - Funding Information: There was no source of funding for this research. Publisher Copyright: © 2022. Garritsen H. H. et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - INTRODUCTION Studies on the impact of smoke-free policies (SFPs) on hospitals grounds on on-site smoking are scarce. On 1 October 2019, an SFP was implemented on the grounds of the Amsterdam UMC hospital in the Netherlands, including measures for sustained enforcement. This study assessed the impact of this SFP on smoking prevalence on hospital grounds up to 18 months after implementation. METHODS Observations were systematically conducted 7 weeks before and after the SFP was implemented, and at 5 and 18 months afterwards. A total of 32 sites were included in the study, divided over two hospital locations. On each site, the number of smokers was systematically observed and categorized into staff, patient, student, or visitor. Smoking prevalence on hospital grounds was calculated by the number of observed smokers as a proportion of all people observed. Bubble maps were created to visualize changes in the geographical distribution of smokers. RESULTS Smoking prevalence on hospital grounds decreased significantly from 17.4% before to 3.3% after implementation of the SFP. Following implementation, the largest decrease was observed in smoking among staff (-96.7%) and patients (-92.3%). The decrease in smoking prevalence was sustained 18 months after implementation (5.0%). The number of smokers decreased on nearly all sites. CONCLUSIONS The substantial and sustained decrease in smoking prevalence found in this study highlights the potential of SFPs on hospital grounds to protect people from exposure to (secondhand) smoking. Continued enforcement of these SFPs seems essential to ensure ongoing compliance.
AB - INTRODUCTION Studies on the impact of smoke-free policies (SFPs) on hospitals grounds on on-site smoking are scarce. On 1 October 2019, an SFP was implemented on the grounds of the Amsterdam UMC hospital in the Netherlands, including measures for sustained enforcement. This study assessed the impact of this SFP on smoking prevalence on hospital grounds up to 18 months after implementation. METHODS Observations were systematically conducted 7 weeks before and after the SFP was implemented, and at 5 and 18 months afterwards. A total of 32 sites were included in the study, divided over two hospital locations. On each site, the number of smokers was systematically observed and categorized into staff, patient, student, or visitor. Smoking prevalence on hospital grounds was calculated by the number of observed smokers as a proportion of all people observed. Bubble maps were created to visualize changes in the geographical distribution of smokers. RESULTS Smoking prevalence on hospital grounds decreased significantly from 17.4% before to 3.3% after implementation of the SFP. Following implementation, the largest decrease was observed in smoking among staff (-96.7%) and patients (-92.3%). The decrease in smoking prevalence was sustained 18 months after implementation (5.0%). The number of smokers decreased on nearly all sites. CONCLUSIONS The substantial and sustained decrease in smoking prevalence found in this study highlights the potential of SFPs on hospital grounds to protect people from exposure to (secondhand) smoking. Continued enforcement of these SFPs seems essential to ensure ongoing compliance.
KW - Hospital
KW - Secondhand smoke
KW - Smoke-free policy
KW - Smoking
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131446743&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.18332/tpc/149476
DO - https://doi.org/10.18332/tpc/149476
M3 - Article
C2 - 35647415
SN - 2459-3087
VL - 8
JO - Tobacco Prevention & Cessation
JF - Tobacco Prevention & Cessation
IS - May
ER -