Article Text
Abstract
Background and aims To show the voluntary adoption of smoke-free homes and the social attitudes towards banning smoking in vehicles with children on board in Spain.
Methods This is a cross-sectional study of a representative sample of the Spanish population between 16 and 75 years old (n=1045). The field work was conducted by computer-assisted telephone survey between March and April 2016. We gathered information about smoking rules at home and attitudes towards the smoking ban in cars with or without children. We measured smoking rules at home in three categories: complete, when smoking was not allowed in the household; partial, when smoking was allowed in some places inside the house; or absent, when smoking was allowed anywhere.
Results 82.94% of the Spanish population had some kind of smoking restriction at home (45.45% complete and 37.49% partial restriction). We found statistically significant differences in the prevalence of smoke-free homes according to age group and tobacco consumption. Findings show that a high percentage of smokers had partial smoking bans at home.
More than 60% of the Spanish population were in favour of banning smoking in cars and 90.11% in favour of banning smoking in cars in the presence of minors. There were statistically significant differences in the attitudes towards smoking regulations in cars according to age group and smoking status. However, there were no statistically significant differences in the attitudes towards smoking regulation in presence of children according to sex, age, social class, and smoking status.
Conclusion There is a high prevalence of partially or fully smoke-free homes in Spain and almost all of adult population in Spain are in favour of legislation to prohibit smoking in cars in presence of minors in Spain. These findings support the introduction of a smoking ban in private vehicles in Spain, especially in the presence of minors