A community-wide school health project for the promotion of smoke-free homes

BACKGROUND: A community-wide school health project for the promotion of smoke-free homes was launched in June 2010 with the aim of promoting the benefits of smoke-free homes to all school-aged children (aged 6–18), and indirectly to their parents and family members. The 1-year project included health talks on a smoke-free life; the distribution of educational leaflets; slogan and visual art competitions; and a health fair held in June 2011. Two sets of questionnaires were developed to solicit a resolution and action from the participants regarding the establishment of a smoke-free home, and their decision to stay smoke-free. This is a paper to report on the activities of this project, the attempts to reach out to school-aged children, and their indications of agreement with, support for, and commitment to promoting smoke-free homes. RESULTS: The project reached an estimated 12,800 school-aged children in Hong Kong. A large proportion of those received educational leaflets (69.6–88.2 %). Of those who participated in the health fair, 69.7–87.6 % agreed to promote the concept of smoke-free homes to friends and family. More primary than secondary students pledged to not take up smoking (90.8 vs 85.8 %). About 82 % of those who had experimented with smoking pledged to stop. A small proportion of them reported already having established a smoke-free policy at home (14.9 %), placed a ‘No Smoking’ sign at home (16.4 %), informed visitors of their smoke-free policy at home (12.9 %), and asked visitors to dispose of lit cigarettes before entering their home (15.9 %). DISCUSSION: This community-wide school health project on the benefits of smoke-free homes reached a large number of students, and indirectly to family members, and home visitors. Public health efforts of this kind should be continued to reach younger generations and the general public. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-015-1555-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.