Brief advice to parents does not protect asthmatic children from passive smoking

Many children with asthma are exposed to high levels of environmental tobacco smoke in their own homes. As part of a randomised controlled trial, Irvine et al (p 1456) advised the parents of asthmatic children to stop smoking to protect their children's health. At the 1 year follow up, similar very small proportions of the intervention and control groups had stopped smoking (3%). Salivary cotinine concentrations measured in the children and their parents showed that the parents had not altered their smoking habits to reduce their children's exposure to tobacco smoke. Questions on intentions to quit smoking showed that the intervention may have made some parents less inclined to stop smoking. Whereas brief interventions to encourage smoking cessation have a modest effect when aimed at the smoker's own health, interventions intended to protect another person's health seem to be ineffective.

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Relevant Article

Advising parents of asthmatic children on passive smoking: randomised controlled trial

Linda Irvine, Iain K Crombie, Roland A Clark, Peter W Slane, Colin Feyerabend, Kirsty E Goodman, and John I Cater
BMJ 1999 318: 1456-1459. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]