Effect Of Smoke-free Regulation On Environmental Tobacco Smoke And Smoking Behavior

The smoke-free laws have been found to be acceptable and effective in many studies conducted in the foreign countries. There is limited systematical evaluation, however, about such impact of smoke-free regulation in China. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the smoke-free regulation by analyzing the differences of the city residents’ envrironmental tobacco smoke and smoking behavior before and after the implementation of the regulation. Recruited through multi-stage stratified random sampling, residents in the experiment and control cities were surveyed before and after the regulation. Based on2753respondents, Logistic regression analysis showed that smoke-free regulation decreased the exposure of second hand smoke in the restaurants, government buildings and transports, but had no impact on the exposure of second hand smoke in the hospitals and schools, and the regulation did not make any difference in the smoking behavior. Our results give support to the acceptability and effectiveness of smoke-free regulations and offer justification for decision-makers to publish and implement smoke-free laws aimed at markedly diminishing the high smoking prevalence in China.