Home > Evidence from a smoking management service in a university teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland monitored by repeat surveys, 1997-2022.

Mattson, Ana and Doherty, Kirsten and Lyons, Ailsa and Douglass, Alexander and Kerley, Mary and Stynes, Sinead and Fitzpatrick, Patricia and Kelleher, Cecily (2023) Evidence from a smoking management service in a university teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland monitored by repeat surveys, 1997-2022. Preventive Medicine Reports, 36, 102415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102415.

External website: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...

St Vincent's University Hospital (SVUH) has a comprehensive smoking management programme and since 1997 has conducted periodic surveys of inpatients, outpatients, staff and visitors to establish prevalence of smoking and associated attitudes towards the hospital's smoke-free campus policy pioneered in 2009. We report trends and describe also the online community stop smoking course (SSC) developed more recently in response to COVID-19. A questionnaire examining attitudes and smoking status was administered by census surveys of inpatients, quota or random sub-sample surveys of staff, and quota surveys with outpatients and visitors in the time period of 1997-2018. Chi square test for trend was used. Smoking rates declined in all groups but significantly so in outpatients (19.5% vs. 10%; p < 0.01), visitors (27.4% vs. 9.5%; p < 0.0001) and staff (30.0% vs. 10.8%; p < 0.0001). Use of E-Cigarettes was low in all cohorts. Rates of smoking were borderline higher in inpatients eligible by income for state-funded General Medical Services (33.2% vs 26.8%, p = 0.099). Support for and awareness of the ban increased over time. Demographic and quit data was compared between participants of in-person or online SSC. The online courses were successful with a maintenance of quit rates (End of Course: 54.7% vs. 55.0%, 1 Month: 50.4% vs. 54.0%, 3 Month: 19.8% vs. 22.5%). While the hospital community's smoking prevalence has decreased over time and attitudes to the smoking ban have been increasingly positive, the campus is not without difficulties in keeping it smoke-free. We continue to advocate for hospital staff support in enacting this flagship initiative.


Item Type
Article
Publication Type
Irish-related, Open Access, Article
Drug Type
Tobacco / Nicotine
Intervention Type
Harm reduction
Date
2023
Identification #
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102415
Publisher
Elsevier
Volume
36
EndNote

Repository Staff Only: item control page