[The home environment of families with children as address for a public health action for reduction of tobacco smoke].
OBJECTIVE
There is limited research about the acceptance of population-based prevention activities, offered systematically and directly at home. Screening data about smoking behaviour in families with children younger than 3 years were used. We examined associations between family variables (education, employment, number of children in the household), the "proportion of persons on social welfare" (PPSW) in the population aged 15-65 years and the following dependent variables: participation rate in a systematic screening, proportion of smokers within the sample of screened families and participation rate in counselling.


METHODS
For postal and personal contacts reporting data of children aged < 3 years, resident in Stralsund (due date 01.06.2008, N=1 298) were used. A total number of 827 families participated in the screening. The counselling was offered if at least 1 adult had smoked at least 1 cigarette per day in the last 4 weeks. Associations between family variables, PPSW and dependent variables were analysed using multilevel statistics.


RESULTS
The higher the PPSP the lower is the probability for participation in the screening (odds ratio=0.982; 95% confidence interval=0.970-0.996). There was at least one adult smoker in 425 (51.4%) of these 827 families participating in the screening. The counselling was offered in 425 families, whereby 65.9% (280) participated. There was no association between family variables, PPSW and participation in the counselling.


CONCLUSIONS
Differences in participation in the screening procedure are low: a high proportion of families in districts with a high PPSW took part. Even in districts with a PPSW rate of more than 30%, 71.3% of the families were successfully contacted. There is the recommendation to offer prevention measures in social< deprived city areas in a more proactive way considering the association between the prevalence of smoking in families and the proportion of PPSW.
Institut für Epidemiologie und Sozialmedizin, Universitätsmedizin Greifswald. angelika.beyer@uni-greifswald.de
A
A
Beyer
U
U
John
N
N
Kastirke
J
J
Sannemann
W
W
Hannöver
C
C
Meyer
S
S
Ulbricht
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012112:Residential Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult