| Summary: | Introduction
There are few reports on the beliefs about thirdhand smoke in Chinese
families with primary school children. This study aims to understand the beliefs
about thirdhand smoke among parents or grandparents of primary school children
in Shanghai and to provide an evidence base to incorporate thirdhand smoke
preventative action into tobacco control interventions.
Methods
We performed a cross-sectional survey among parents and grandparents
of children aged 6–13 years in the Changjiang Road Primary School and recruited
843 participants to make assessments on the ‘beliefs about thirdhand smoke’
(BATHS) scale. Sociodemographic details including age, gender, marital status,
education level, personal income and type of home ownership (new house,
secondhand house with or without redecoration) and health status of children
(whether they suffered from respiratory diseases or not) were investigated. Scale
assessment, univariate and multivariate analyses to explore the factors influencing
the BATHS scale and subscale scores, were performed using SPSS version 22.0.
Results
Participants who were aged >65 years were more likely to get lower scores
on the BATHS scale (OR=0.476; 95% CI: 0.311–0.728, p=0.001). Undergraduates
(OR=1.190; 95% CI: 1.020–1.388, p=0.027) and graduates (OR=1.4490; 95% CI:
1.102–1.906, p=0.008) obtained higher scores. Moreover, the scores of residents
living in a secondhand house with redecoration (OR=0.882; 95% CI: 0.782–
0.995, p=0.041) and without redecoration (OR=0.801; 95% CI: 0.698–0.919,
p=0.002) were lower compared with those of new-house owners. The scores
for participants whose children suffered from respiratory diseases in the past
six months (OR=1.104; 95% CI: 1.003–1.216, p=0.043) were higher than those
whose children had no respiratory diseases.
Conclusions
This study shows that younger people, females, those with higher
incomes, and higher education levels, were more likely to believe the thirdhand
smoke impacts on health and its persistence in the environment. Our findings can
guide targeted actions for smoke-free home interventions.
|
|---|
