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Characteristics of patients adhering to a hospital's no-smoking policy
K M Emmons1, B R Cargill, J Hecht
1Miriam Hospital/Brown University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02115, USA. karen_emmons@dfci.harvard.edu
Objectives:
The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of smokers who adhere to a hospital smoking ban, compared to those who do not.
Design:
The data presented in this paper are baseline and discharge survey data collected among hospitalized smokers.
Setting:
This study was conducted in two teaching hospitals in a northeastern city.
Patients/Participants:
The subjects were 358 smokers who participated in a larger smoking intervention trial.
Main Results:
Seventy-six percent of the subjects reported adhering to the smoke-free policy during their hospital stay. In a multivariate model, demographic factors that predicted adherence included being older, having shorter length of stay, not reporting recreational drug use in the previous 12 months, and not having alcohol-related problems. Smoking history variables that predicted adherence included having had at least 24 h of abstinence in the 7 days prior to hospitalization; self-efficacy variables (e.g., confidence in ability to quit smoking in 1 month and less anticipated difficulty refraining from smoking during hospitalization) also predicted adherence.
Conclusions:
Understanding the factors that predict adherence to health care policies can provide useful information for health promotion interventions in a medical setting. The implications of these findings are discussed.