Background and Aims: It has been shown that the effects of household smoking restrictions (HSRs) are similar to those observed in workplace restrictions (Beiner et al., 1997) and in some cases be more effective (Pierce et al., 1994). However when age is taken into account, the results are often compounded and varied as many studies focus solely on specific age groups at a time (Mak et al., 2008; Rahilly & Farwell 2007; Messer et al., 2008). Therefore the question of how effective HSR's are in which age group is not well researched. The aim of this study is to explore the effectiveness of HSRs and its association with smoking abstinence while controlling for important covariates.
Methods and Materials: The study used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) cycle, 3.1. Smoking abstinence was defined as individuals who reported to not have smoked greater than 100 cigarettes (n = 1024578) and were selected for this analysis. Important covariates include sex, age, education and immigrant status. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between smoking household restrictions and smoking abstinence when taking covariates into consideration.
Results: Individuals who implemented HSRs reported to be abstinent from smoking at 12% compared to those with no HSRs at 0.7%. When adjusted for covariates of interest, the odds ratio (OR) for smoking abstinence was 1.43 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04, 1.97; P < 0.026). It was found that age was a strong predictor of smoking abstinence particularly in youths at 3.11 (95% CI: 1.65, 5.84; P < 0.001) and young adults at 1.92 (95% CI: 1.44, 1.92; P < 0.001). Non immigrant status was also a predictor of smoking abstinence (OR: 1.41 95% CI: 1.18, 1.67: P < 0.004) while male sex had an inverse relationship to smoking abstinence (OR: 0.60 95% CI: 0.43, 0.60; P < 0.002).
Conclusions: It is suggested that HSRs are important in anti-tobacco socialization in youths and young adults. Individuals living in a home with HSRs may internalize attitudes and behavioural norms against the initiation or continuation of smoking.