(RxWiki News) Smoking rates have dropped over the years partly due to no-smoking laws inside certain buildings. Smoking rates may drop further if people outlawed smoking in their homes too.
A recent study looked at the rates of smoking and of those trying to quit smoking among individuals who lived in homes where smoking was allowed versus homes where smoking was not allowed.
The results of the study showed that persons living in a smoke-free home smoked fewer cigarettes and were more successful at quitting compared with persons living in homes where smoking was allowed.
"Adopt a smoke-free home."
Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, and John P. Pierce, PhD, from the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center, led this investigation into ways to reduce smoking in the US.
According to these researchers, laws that have made smoking illegal indoors have been one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking in the US.
For this study, the researchers looked at data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS), which is a monthly survey conducted by the US Census Bureau on people 15 and older not living in jail or a mental institution.
From 2006 to 2007, and over three separate surveys, 150,967 people aged 18 and older responded to the survey.
The researchers found that persons living below the federal poverty line were 38 percent more likely to have smoked more than 100 cigarettes over the course of their lifetimes than individuals living in moderate- to high-income households.
Persons living below the federal poverty line were 21 percent less likely to have quit smoking and twice as likely to be current smokers than individuals in moderate- to high-income households.
Smokers living in a home where smoking was not allowed smoked 35 percent fewer cigarettes per day than smokers living in a home where smoking was permitted.
Individuals living in a smoke-free home were more successful at quitting smoking compared with persons trying to quit in homes where smoking was permitted (7.9 percent versus 1.5 percent, respectively).
The authors of this study concluded that adopting a smoke-free home helped people either smoke fewer cigarettes per day or quit smoking altogether.
“We are telling people that if they really want to quit, then introducing a smoke-free home will help them be successful,” Dr. Pierce said in a press statement.
This study was published in October in the American Journal of Public Health.
The UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program provided funding for this project. No conflicts of interest were declared.
