The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: From 26th March 2006 there will be a comprehensive ban on smoking in enclosed public places in Scotland. This session will provide an overview of the evaluation strategy designed to assess the outcomes associated with implementation of the smoke-free legislation.

The presentations will describe the evaluation framework and the extensive series of interrelated research studies and routine data sets used by the Clean-air Legislation EvaluAtioN (CLEAN) Collaboration to evaluate the Scottish ban. There will also be an update on plans to evaluate the unique natural experiment that would be created should only a partial ban be introduced in England.

Methods: The evaluation framework is based on a logic model with 12 outcome areas. The evaluation will focus on eight of these – knowledge and attitudes; ETS exposure; compliance; culture; smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption; tobacco-related morbidity and mortality; economic impacts on the hospitality sector; and health inequalities. Assessment of each outcome area will be based on a combination of secondary analysis of routine health, behavioural and economic data as well as primary research commissioned to address specific questions.

Results: Commissioned studies include two repeat cross-sectional surveys of changes in childhood and adult ETS exposure; a multi-centre prospective study of changes in acute coronary syndrome; a study of changes bar workers' health; two qualitative studies of changes in the cultures in bars and the wider community; and a prospective cohort study of changes in attitudes, smoking and quitting behaviour; and leisure behaviour in nationally representative samples of smokers and non-smokers.