CONFERENCE PROCEEDING
Support for smoke-free regulation in private and public places: Findings from the 2021 ITC EUREST-PLUS Spain Survey
Marcela Fu 1,2,3,4
,
 
,
 
Olena Tigova 1,2,3,4
,
 
,
 
,
 
 
 
 
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1
Catalan Institute of Oncology, l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
 
2
Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
 
3
University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
 
4
Center for Biomedical Research in Respiratory Diseases, Institute of Health Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
 
5
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
 
6
University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
 
7
European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention, Brussels, Belgium
 
8
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States of America
 
9
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Canada
 
 
Publication date: 2023-04-25
 
 
Corresponding author
Marcela Fu
Catalan Institute of Oncology, l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
 
 
Tob. Prev. Cessation 2023;9(Supplement):A106
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Knowing smokers’ opinions about smoking regulations is vital to assess their acceptance and ensure compliance. We explored smokers’ opinions and support for smoking bans in enclosed and public open settings, some not covered by the current Spanish legislation.

Material and Methods:
The 2021 International Tobacco Control EUREST-PLUS Spain Survey used a nationally representative sample of 1006 smokers aged ≥18 years. A detailed questionnaire was administered in person or by telephone. We explored smokers’ opinions and support by socio-demographics and smoking characteristics. We fitted Poisson regression models with robust variance adjusted for age and sex to identify associated factors.

Results:
Most smokers think that smoking should not be allowed in schoolyards of primary (98.0%) and secondary schools (97.4%) and in cars with preschool children (98.2%), children aged <16 (96.2%) or non-smokers (83.2%); the percentage was lower for beaches (15.7%) and outdoor terraces of bars/pubs (15.2%) and restaurants (18.4%). Factors strongly associated with thinking that smoking should not be allowed on outdoor terraces were not having partner/friends who smoke compared to having a smoking partner and not considering themselves addicted to cigarettes. This last factor was also associated with thinking that smoking should not be allowed at beaches, entrances to public buildings, and open stadiums. Support for further complete smoke-free bans in open areas was moderate (<60%). High nicotine-dependence (assessed with the Heavy Smoking Index) was significantly associated with supporting a complete ban at entrances of public buildings and in markets/malls, whereas not having partner/friends who smoked were significantly associated with not supporting a complete ban at swimming pools.

Conclusions:
Smokers were mostly in favour of smoking regulations in places with minors, but they had heterogeneous opinions about the regulations in other settings.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
GTF has been a paid expert consultant for the Government of Singapore to review scientific evidence on standardized packaging and an expert witness or consultant for governments defending their country’s policies or regulations in litigation. Other authors have no conflicts to declare.
FUNDING
The EUREST PLUS Spain Project is partially funded by the Institute of Health Carlos III (grant PI17/01338, co-funded by European Regional Development Fund ERDF, a way to build Europe) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FDN-148477). YC, EF, MF, and OT are partly supported by the Ministry of Universities and Research, Government of Catalonia (2021SGR00906). Additional support is provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FDN-148477) to ACKQ, SCK, and GTF for the work on this manuscript. Additional support to GTF is also provided by a Senior Investigator Grant from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.
eISSN:2459-3087
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