Background: Previous studies showed reduction of hospital admissions for asthma after implementation of comprehensive smoke-free legislation. We aimed to evaluate the impact of comprehensive smoke-free legislation implemented in Hong Kong in 2007 on hospital admissions for childhood lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI).
Methods: We obtained data on 75 870 hospital admissions for LRTI among children ≤18 years of age between January 2004 and December 2012 from all Hospital Authority hospitals. Using a negative binomial regression model, we assessed the impact of smoke-free legislation on admission counts.
Results: After legislation implementation, there was an immediate effect with a change in the admission count of -33.5% (95% CI -36.4% to -30.5%), and a change in time trend to -13.9% per year (95% CI -16.0% to -11.7%). Overall, the legislation was associated with a net 47.4% reduction in admission counts in the first year. We estimated that the legislation was associated with a reduction of 13 635 admissions in the first 6 years after implementation. The immediate reduction and change in time trend was more apparent among school-age than preschool children.
Conclusions: Implementation of comprehensive smoke-free legislation was associated with a significant reduction in hospital admissions for childhood LRTI.
Keywords: Environment; Prevention; Public policy; Secondhand smoke.
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