title: Banning smoking in a children's hospital: are employees supportive?
abstract: This study surveyed 762 professional and auxiliary employees in a large urban children's hospital to assess readiness for a total ban on smoking. The prevalence of never smokers was 63.1%, former smokers was 21.1%, and current smokers was 15.1%. Among nonsmokers, 83% indicated that a children's hospital should be smoke-free. The attitudes of former smokers were almost identical to those of never smokers. Less than half of current smokers (43%) agreed with a ban on smoking which suggests some support for a smoke-free setting even among smokers. In multivariate analysis, smokers, however, were eight times less likely to agree with such a policy, independent of age, sex, and occupation. This study suggests that the majority of employees are supportive of a total ban on smoking but that special efforts to help smokers stop smoking may enhance the effectiveness of a policy banning smoking in a children's health care facility.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland 21205.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Conner
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Waranch
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Swank
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weida
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006782:Hospitals, Special; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008396:Maryland; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention