A Survey Of Smoking Behavior And Knowledge Concerning Smoking Among New Parents In Chengdu City

Background of the studyOne of serious problems that threaten people's health in the 21st century is smoking. Smoking is harmful to both active smokers and passive smokers. Some studies have indicated passive smoking is more dangerous to young children than to adults. The harm caused by tobacco smoke is multi-systemic and affects every growth stage of children .Passive smoking not only damages children physical function but also produces children behavioral problems. One study showed a child would have behavioral problems when his/her father smoked. The more father smoked ,the more behavioral problems the child would have. In this case it is very important to keep children from tobacco smoke for their fitness. In China, passive smoking situation among children is severe. According to the National Smoking Survey in 1996, 53.5% of whole population in China were passive smokers. Among them, 2/3 inhaled smoke passively everyday. Women and children smoked passively more than others and they smoked more in households than in other locations. Fathers have been found to be the main source of smoke to their children. A survey showed that of all the typical families with three members, 59.3% had children passive smokers at home. 83.3% had indoor smoking fathers if fathers were current smokers, but no indoor smoking mothers.This survey suggested that some measures be taken to reduce fathers' indoor smoking in order to protect children.Although a great deal of effort has been made to control tobacco in China the smoking situation is far from optimism. Smoking is a behavior caused by multifactors. Family have some something to do with person's smoking behavior. It is important yet often neglected that family take part in a smoking control program. In this study we try to find wives' role in reducing husbands smoking if we encourage wives in a smoking control program focusing on protecting infants. This study was granted by Western Pacific Regional Organization in May, 2003.Objectives: ?To examine knowledge concerning smoking among new-parents, ?To examine current smoking status and indoor smoking habits among new-fathers, (§)To identify factors related to current smoking and indoor smoking among new-fathers; ?To provide evidence for measures focusing on control of indoor smoking.Instruments: Two questionnaires were used. One was "new-father smoking behavior and knowledge concerning smoking assessment questionnaire" for new-fathers regarding their current smoking status ,indoor smoking habits, cessation experience, possible changes in smoking behavior in the future, smoking companies at home ,and knowledge concerning smoking. The other "new-mother attitude toward smoking and knowledge concerning smoking assessment questionnaire" for new-mothers regarding their attitude towards smoking, possible interventions to husbands smoking behavior in the future, and knowledge concerning smoking. Design: cross sectional surveySubjects: The families with an infant in the urban area of Chengdu City. Inclusion criteria: (D the families with a 0-7days old newborn; ?newbom's parents are permanent residents in the urban area;(§)The infant's parents shouldn't depart eachother for more than 3 months after the baby born. Exclusion criteria: the families with new-mother smokers.1020 eligible subjects from 510 families were interviewed with questionnaires in four maternal hospitals in the urban area of Chengdu City from Dec,2003 to Jan.2004.All the new-parents were informed that they were free to decide to participate this study and free to terminate their participation whenever they wished.Statistical Analysis: descriptive statistics, Chi-square, t test, one way ANOVA, binary logistic regression were used.Results: ?Among 16 questions concerning harmfulness of smoking, 3 were answered correctly by more than 90% new-fathers, 13 not answered correctly by more than 90% new-fathers; while these figures were 5,11 respectively among new-mothers. When all the 16 questions were quantified the score was 10.9x2.4 for mothers, and 10.4+2.2 for fathers, there was a significant difference between the scores C.PO.01). Significant difference was also found in people with different education background (PO.01) , with lowest score among people of the lowest education level and highest score among people of the highest educational level. There was no statistical difference among people with different occupations (P>0.05) .The correlation between age and knowledge on smoking was not statistically significant (,P>0.05) ; ?The rate of current smoking was 51.0% (95 %CI: 49.5%, 56.0%) among new-fathers .80% (95%CI: 74.6%, 85.4%) of the current smokers smoked indoors. The rate of indoor smoking among new-fathers was 40.1% (37.6%, 45.0%) ; ? Current smoking was related with father's education ,occupation ,attitude towards smoking, and mother's avoiding from smoke (PO.05) . Age and knowledge on smoking of father, attitude of mother towards smoking, family income had no significant effect on fathers' current smoking rate (P>0.05) . The indoor smoking proportion among current smoker was related with the number of smoking, wives' restriction to indoorsmoking, smoking companies at home (PO.05) . Smoking period of current smokers and visitor smoking status at home had no significant effect on indoor smoking proportion ( P>0.05 ) ; @ 69.0 % of current smokers had no determination of quitting smoking. 28.1% ,7.9% planed to cease smoking in this month, in this half of year respectively. Of all the indoor smokers who had no cessation plan, 48.9% decided to smoke outdoors, 51.1%decided not to smoke close to infants, none would not change indoor smoking habits. Of all the current smokers' wives, 48.4% determined to persuade husbands to smoke outdoors, 22.6%persuade husbands not to smoke close to infants, 24.7% persuade husbands to cease smoking, 4.2% made no determination. Conclusion(1). Conclusion and suggestion: ?New-parents were not quite aware of the harm of smoking .It is necessary to provide information on the harm of smoking to new-parents especially poorly educated parents; ?Based on the factors related to current smoking and indoor smoking ,measures should be adopted to reduce the current smoking rate and the indoor smoking proportion so as to diminish new-fathers' indoor smoking rate; ?The majority of the families with indoor smoker determined to keep newborns from tobacco smoke by changing smoking behavior at home. They should be provided with necessary information and skills to facilitate indoor smoking reduction; ?Wives play a role in husbands smoking behavior. It is important that wives take part in control program aimed to reducing husbands smoking.(2). Significance of this survey: To provide evidence for the next stage of this study—intervention and to provide evidence for community nursing and health education in community.(3). Weakness of this survey: ?Conclusion should be interpreted to some extent with caution because of the small sample; ?Analysis of family smoking behaviorwas limited to some extant because information from the questionnaires was notenough.