BACKGROUND: Exposure to secondhand smoke is a health hazard that can lead to many diseases. Creation on comprehensive smoke-free indoor environments can effectively protect people from secondhand smoke. This study aimed to assess the impact of smoke-free government construction on staff smoking and cessation behaviors, focusing on the promotion of cessation behaviors by smoke-free environments and possible related mechanisms.
METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study. The study used stratified random cluster sampling method to select 144 government institutions from 31 Provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The survey was carried out between October and November, 2023 by filling out questionnaires online among the insiders of the institutions and all the smoking staff members. The main indicators included the number of smokers before and after the construction of smoke-free governments and the measures for the construction of smoke-free governments. 144 questionnaires from insiders were recovered, including 1.716 valid questionnaires. The SAS 9.4 was used to perform χ² test and log-binomial regression analysis.
RESULTS: The smoking rate decreased from 8.81% to 6.70% after the construction of smoke-free party and government organs (P<0.001). The facilitators of smoking cessation included a total ban on smoking in indoor public places in the host city (OR=2.301, P<0.01), a punitive mechanism (OR=1.219, P<0.01), a smoking cessation contest activity (OR=1.865, P<0.01), and reimbursement or provision of smoking cessation medication (OR=2.210, P<0.01); and the number of smoking leaders (OR= 0.858, P<0.001) and years of smoking (OR=0.932, P<0.001) had a negative impact on smoking cessation.
CONCLUSIONS: The construction of smoke-free governments can effectively promote the smoking cessation behaviors of smoking staff members. Comprehensive smoke-free policies, punishment mechanism for smoking staff members and activities such as smoking cessation competitions, and reimbursement for or provision of smoking cessation medications are important, which should be popularized and widely implemented nationwide.