Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2012 Feb;22 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):4-9.
doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckr203.

Comparative impact of smoke-free legislation on smoking cessation in three European countries

Gera E Nagelhout  1 , Hein de Vries, Christian Boudreau, Shane Allwright, Ann McNeill, Bas van den Putte, Geoffrey T Fong, Marc C Willemsen
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Comparative impact of smoke-free legislation on smoking cessation in three European countries

Gera E Nagelhout et al. Eur J Public Health. 2012 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the differential impact of comprehensive and partial smoke-free legislation on smoking cessation. This study aimed to examine the impact of comprehensive smoke-free workplace legislation in Ireland and England, and partial hospitality industry legislation in the Netherlands on quit attempts and quit success.

Methods: Nationally representative samples of 2,219 adult smokers were interviewed in three countries as part of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Europe Surveys. Quit attempts and quit success were compared between period 1 (in which smoke-free legislation was implemented in Ireland and the Netherlands) and period 2 (in which smoke-free legislation was implemented in England).

Results: In Ireland, significantly more smokers attempted to quit smoking in period 1 (50.5%) than in period 2 (36.4%) (p < 0.001). Percentages of quit attempts and quit success did not change significantly between periods in the Netherlands. English smokers were significantly more often successful in their quit attempt in period 2 (47.3%) than in period 1 (26.4%) (p = 0.011). In the first period there were more quit attempts in Ireland than in England and fewer in the Netherlands than in Ireland. Fewer smokers quitted successfully in the second period in both Ireland and the Netherlands than in England.

Conclusion: The comprehensive smoke-free legislation in Ireland and England may have had positive effects on quit attempts and quit success respectively. The partial smoke-free legislation in the Netherlands probably had no effect on quit attempts or quit success. Therefore, it is recommended that countries implement comprehensive smoke-free legislation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timeline of the survey waves, sample sizes, and smoke-free legislation implementation dates for Ireland, England, and the Netherlands
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of quit attempts and quit success in two periods† in Ireland, England, and the Netherlands. †National smoke-free legislation was implemented in the first period in Ireland and the Netherlands, and in the second period in England
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2003. WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
    1. Callinan JE, Clarke A, Doherty K, et al. Legislative smoking bans for reducing secondhand smoke exposure, smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2010;(Issue 4) - PubMed
    1. Fichtenberg CM, Glantz SA. Effect of smoke-free workplaces on smoking behaviour: Systematic review. BMJ. 2002;325(7357):188. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brown A, Moodie C, Hastings G. A longitudinal study of policy effect (smoke-free legislation) on smoking norms: ITC Scotland/United Kingdom. Nicotine Tob Res. 2009;11:924–932. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Albers AB, Siegel M, Cheng DM, et al. Relation between local restaurant smoking regulations and attitudes towards the prevalence and social acceptability of smoking: A study of youths and adults who eat out predominantly at restaurants in their town. Tob Control. 2004;13:347–355. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types