Implementing Tobacco Control Assistance in Pediatric Departments of Chinese Hospitals: A Feasibility Study

Evidence-based tobacco control strategies delivered through pediatric settings could encourage parental smoking cessation and reduce children's exposure to second hand smoke (SHS) in the United States. The extent to which these tobacco control strategies could be routinely implemented in the pediatric setting of a developing country is not known. We tested the feasibility and efficacy of implementing an evidence-based intervention, the Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure (CEASE), in a Chinese hospital to address the second hand smoke exposure of children in the home and car and to address parental smoking.

We conducted a quasi-experimental trial of CEASE implementation in the pediatric inpatient departments of 2 Chinese hospitals, 1 assigned as the intervention hospital and another assigned as the control hospital. Data were collected through pre- and postsurveys of parents and clinicians, implementation process surveys, and chart review.

In the intervention hospital, pediatricians' rates of delivering different types of tobacco control assistance to smoking parents were all significantly (P < .0001) higher during the post-CEASE implementation period than in the pre-CEASE implementation period. During the post-CEASE implementation period, pediatricians' rates of delivery for all aspects of tobacco control assistance were significantly higher (all P < .0001) in the intervention hospital than in the control hospital, whereas there was no difference during the pre-CEASE period.

The findings of this study suggest that it is feasible to implement a system-level intervention of CEASE in the pediatric inpatient department of a major hospital in southern China. A large-scale trial incorporating measures to increase quit rates and including a long-term follow-up is needed to examine the effectiveness of CEASE implementation in China.