Do partial home smoking bans signal progress toward a smoke-free home?

Understanding who establishes partial home smoking bans, what these bans cover, and whether they are an intermediate step in going smoke-free would help to inform smoke-free home interventions. Participants were recruited from United Way of Greater Atlanta's 2-1-1 contact center. Data were collected at baseline, 3 and 6 months via telephone interview. Participants (n = 375) were mostly African American (84.2%) and female (84.3%). The majority (58.5%) had annual household incomes <$10 000. At baseline, 61.3% reported a partial smoking ban and 38.7% reported no ban. Existence of a partial ban as compared with no ban was associated with being female, having more than a high school education, being married and younger age. Partial bans most often meant smoking was allowed only in designated rooms (52.6%). Other common rules included: no smoking in the presence of children (18.4%) and smoking allowed only in combination with actions such as opening a window or running a fan (9.8%). A higher percentage of households with partial bans at baseline were smoke-free at 6 months (36.5%) compared with households with no bans at baseline (22.1%). Households with partial smoking bans may have a higher level of readiness to go smoke-free than households with no restrictions.