The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: To describe the smoking characteristics among a group of smoking fathers whose non-smoking wife took their infant to the maternal and child health centers, and to discuss the opportunity to intervene paternal smoking in child health care settings.

Methods: Families with non-smoking mother, smoking father and infant living together in the same household, and attending the maternal and child health centers were recruited in a randomized controlled trial which aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-step family smoking cessation intervention. A total of 208 families participated in the trial.

Results: Nearly 70% of the fathers were aged 21 to 39, and 96.2% were employed with majority in occupation subgroups with high smoking prevalence (e.g. craft and related work, plants and machine operators and assemblers, service and shop sales, etc.). The mean consumption of tobacco was 15.6 cigarettes per day and 64.9% were mildly dependent on nicotine based on the Fagerstrom score (0-3). More than 40% of fathers had no quit attempt in the past while another 46% had tried quit smoking once. It is noteworthy that nearly all (94.7%) fathers were in pre-contemplation stage.

Conclusion: Smoking fathers recruited in this setting had different smoking behavior when compared with the male smokers who attended smoking cessation and counseling centers in Hong Kong. Further evidence is provided to support that the child health care setting provides access and unique teachable moments to motivate parents, who may not have any other access to a smoking cessation service, to quit smoking.

CRCG/HKU