Pediatric asthma hospitalizations decreased by about 20% per year after a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces was enacted in Scotland, said Daniel Mackay, Ph.D., of the University of Glasgow and his associates.
Before the legislation was implemented, there was concern that people might transfer their smoking from public areas to their homes, “leading paradoxically to an increase in exposure … among children,” they said (N. Engl. J. Med. 2010;363:1139–45).
Such displacement of smoking activity has not occurred. Instead, the results support the conclusion of another study that found that the public ban on smoking was followed by an increase in voluntary smoking restrictions in homes as well, the investigators said.
They used government databases to identify all 21,415 asthma admissions across Scotland from January 2000 through October 2009 for children younger than 15 years.
In the period from 2000 until implementation of the smoking ban in 2006, hospital admissions for asthma rose an adjusted average of 4.4% per year.
In the period after the smoking ban was enacted, the risk-adjusted annual rate of pediatric asthma admissions declined 19.5%, a statistically significant difference. The rate of asthma hospitalizations decreased both in preschool and school-age children, Dr. Mackay and his colleagues said.
NHS Health Scotland funded the study. The investigators had no relevant conflicts of interest.