RESEARCH PAPER
Effect of smoking regulations in local restaurants on smokers anti-smoking attitudes and quitting behaviours
1 Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2 Biostatistics Department, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
3 Center for Survey Research, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
4 General Medicine Division and Tobacco Research and Treatment Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr A Albers
Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, TW2, Boston, MA 02118, USA; aalbers{at}bu.edu
Objective: To examine the effect of smoking regulations in local restaurants on anti-smoking attitudes and quitting behaviours among adult smokers.
Design: Hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) was used to assess the relationship between baseline strength of town-level restaurant smoking regulation and follow-up (1) perceptions of the social acceptability of smoking and (2) quitting behaviours.
Setting: Each of the 351 Massachusetts towns was classified as having strong (complete smoking ban) or weak (all other and no smoking restrictions) restaurant smoking regulations.
Subjects: 1712 adult smokers of Massachusetts aged
18 years at baseline who were interviewed via random-digit-dial telephone survey in 20012 and followed up 2 years later.
Main outcome measures: Perceived social acceptability of smoking in restaurants and bars, and making a quit attempt and quitting smoking.
Results: Among adult smokers who had made a quit attempt at baseline, living in a town with a strong regulation was associated with a threefold increase in the odds of making a quit attempt at follow-up (OR = 3.12; 95% CI 1.51 to 6.44). Regulation was found to have no effect on cessation at follow-up. A notable, although marginal, effect of regulation was observed for perceiving smoking in bars as socially unacceptable only among smokers who reported at baseline that smoking in bars was socially unacceptable.
Conclusions: Although local restaurant smoking regulations did not increase smoking cessation rates, they did increase the likelihood of making a quit attempt among smokers who had previously tried to quit, and seem to reinforce anti-social smoking norms among smokers who already viewed smoking in bars as socially unacceptable.
Abbreviations: HLM, hierarchical linear modelling
![]()
CiteULike
Complore
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Brown, A., Moodie, C., Hastings, G.
(2009). A longitudinal study of policy effect (smoke-free legislation) on smoking norms: ITC Scotland/United Kingdom. Nicotine Tob Res
11: 924-932
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Hahn, E. J., Rayens, M. K., Langley, R. E., Darville, A., Dignan, M.
(2009). Time since smoke-free law and smoking cessation behaviors. Nicotine Tob Res
11: 1011-1015
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Fiore, M. C., Baker, T. B.
(2009). Stealing a March in the 21st Century: Accelerating Progress in the 100-Year War Against Tobacco Addiction in the United States. AJPH
99: 1170-1175
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Thrasher, J. F., Boado, M., Sebrie, E. M., Bianco, E.
(2009). Smoke-free policies and the social acceptability of smoking in Uruguay and Mexico: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project. Nicotine Tob Res
11: 591-599
[Abstract] [Full Text]
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
