title: Changes in U.S. hospitalization and mortality rates following smoking bans.
abstract: U.S. state and local governments have increasingly adopted restrictions on smoking in public places. This paper analyzes nationally representative databases, including the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, to compare short-term changes in mortality and hospitalization rates in smoking-restricted regions with control regions. In contrast with smaller regional studies, we find that smoking bans are not associated with statistically significant short-term declines in mortality or hospital admissions for myocardial infarction or other diseases. An analysis simulating smaller studies using subsamples reveals that large short-term increases in myocardial infarction incidence following a smoking ban are as common as the large decreases reported in the published literature.
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kanaka D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Shetty
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: DeLeire
authors.forename: Chapin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Jayanta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D014943:Global Health; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000639:trends; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000401:mortality; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution