Undercover investigation on the smoke-free environment in medical and healthcare institutions in Zhejiang Province / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective @#To investigate the establishment of smoke-free environments in medical and healthcare institutions in Zhejiang Province, so as to provide the evidence for improving the implementation of the tobacco control policy in medical and healthcare institutions.@*Methods@#Health administrative sectors and public health institutions at provincial, city and county levels, secondary and tertiary medical institutions, and community health service/township health centers in Zhejiang Province were enrolled. The status of institutional establishment of smoke-free environments was investigated through concealed photography and consulting medical service guides by the assigned the third-party professional investigation company in 2021. The layout of smoke-free environments and indoor smoking were assessed according to the Criteria for Scoring Smoking-free Medical and Healthcare Institutions.@*Results@#Totally 547 medical and healthcare institutions were enrolled in this undercover investigation, including 102 health administrative sectors, 209 public health institutions, 146 secondary and tertiary medical institutions, and 90 community health service/township health centers. The gross mean scores of establishment of smoke-free environments were 83.41±12.19 among all medical and healthcare institutions, 82.02±10.73, 85.56±9.70 and 83.18±12.59 among province-, city- and county-level medical and healthcare institutions, respectively, and the gross mean scores of establishment of smoke-free environments were 82.60±12.27, 85.79±10.74, 80.89±13.85, 82.27±11.62 scores among health administrative sectors, public health institutions, secondary and tertiary medical institutions and community health service/township health centers, respectively. There were 315 institutions with no smoking signs at entrances (57.59%), 255 institutions posting no smoking signs ( 46.62% ), 245 institutions assigning two and more types of health education materials for tobacco control ( 44.79% ), 110 institutions with outdoor smoking areas ( 51.16% ), 66 secondary and tertiary medical institutions with smoking cessation clinics ( 45.20% ) and 354 institutions with carpet smoking bans in indoor places ( 64.72% ).@*Conclusions@#The overall establishment of smoke-free environments is satisfactory among medical and healthcare institutions in Zhejiang Province. Nevertheless, improving the coverage of no smoking signs and health education of tobacco control, promoting the standardized construction of smoking cessation clinics and establishing a long-action tobacco control mechanism are still needed.