'Smoke near me and I smoke too': evaluation of a smoke-free homes program in central Sydney, NSW

Issues addressed: To implement and evaluate an intervention designed to increase knowledge of the harms of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) upon young children and support the implementation of harm reduction strategies among parents/carers of young children to reduce the children's exposure to ETS in a local government area of inner Sydney. Method: An intervention was developed (based on themes derived from focus groups and the literature) and implemented over four months from February to May 1999. Pre, post and six-month follow-up intercept surveys were conducted with parents of children younger than seven years in the intervention area and a comparison area. Results: There were significant increases in prompted and unprompted recall of the intervention message in the intervention area, with prompted recall being sustained at six month follow-up. Knowledge of ineffective strategies to protect children from ETS also significantly increased with a significant association between increased knowledge and recall of the intervention message. There was a non-statistically significant increase in the proportion of smoke-free homes from 67% to 75%. Conclusion: Although the intervention was well implemented, more substantial and longer intervention is needed to increase the proportion of smoke-free homes.