麻豆传媒映画

鈥淚f they're living in a home that's contaminated by tobacco, they're being damaged every single day.鈥�

A 麻豆传媒映画 study found some parents who smoke at home can be nudged outdoors with a combination of coaching, lights and sound.

鈥淧roject Fresh Air鈥� installed equipment in nearly 300 homes that flashed a warning light and emitted a tone whenever air monitors detected secondhand smoke. The result was an apparent near-20 percent reduction in smoking and other activity that set off the alerts.

Mel Hovell, who led the study at 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health, said his goal is to protect children from the harm associated with secondhand smoke鈥攊ncluding asthma, bronchitis and ear infections. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e living in a home that鈥檚 contaminated by tobacco, they鈥檙e being damaged every single day,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e breathing active smoke it鈥檚 even worse.鈥�

The study was the first to combine motivational coaching on smoking with an immediate form of feedback, and follows decades of previous research by Hovell and others at 麻豆传媒映画 on secondhand smoke and the residue from thirdhand smoke left on carpets, furniture and other household materials.

Families throughout San Diego County were invited to participate. All had at least one child under 14 (the average age was 4). Researchers provided up to four sessions of coaching aimed at encouraging smokers to take their habit outside.

When they didn鈥檛, the smoke they produced caused a light on the installed home device to switch to yellow and the equipment to emit a low-frequency tone: three quick pulses. Continued exposure would lead to an even louder tone and a red light. The goal, Hovell said, was to reduce smoking inside the home by delivering almost immediate feedback.

Collecting data

Hovell鈥檚 team left the equipment in the homes for up to three months, including a one-month baseline period prior to the lights and sounds. They then crunched the data from a combined 27,443 days of measurement and compared them to a control group.

The figures showed a 19.35 percent reduction in the air 鈥減article events鈥� that triggered the alarms, compared to the period before the intervention efforts. In the control homes, particle events actually increased slightly.

鈥淪moking outdoors is relatively easy to do,鈥� said Hovell. 鈥淥ur job is to move them outside.鈥�

Funding from the project came from the National Institutes of Health. Results were published in in the journal Tobacco Control.