title: Hospital discharge rates before and after implementation of a city-wide smoking ban in a Texas city, 2004-2008.
abstract: The objective of this study was to examine hospital discharge data on 5 tobacco-related diagnoses before and after implementation of a smoking ban in a small Texas city. We compared hospital discharge rates for 2 years before and 2 years after implementation of the ban in the intervention city with discharge rates during the same time in a similar city with no ban. The discharge rates for blacks and whites combined declined significantly after the ban in the intervention city for acute myocardial infarction (MI) (rate ratio [RR], 0.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.65-0.85) and for stroke or cerebrovascular accident (RR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.62-0.82); discharge rates in the intervention city also declined significantly for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (RR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.54-0.75) and asthma (RR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.52-0.91) for whites only. Discharge rates for 4 of 5 diagnoses in the control city did not change. Although postban reduction in acute MI is well documented, this is one of the first studies to show a racial disparity in health benefits and a decline in tobacco-related diagnoses other than acute MI after implementation of a city-wide smoking ban.
authors.affiliation: Occupational Medical Care, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Phil
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Head
authors.forename: Bradford E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: Sejong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cherry
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology; D006291:Health Policy; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D012907:Smoking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution