Beyond ‘Reach’: Evaluating a Smoke-Free Homes Social Marketing Campaign

Abstract

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is an important public health risk, with children especially vulnerable to its adverse effects. This study evaluates an evidence-based social marketing and community engagement campaign designed to address children's exposure to ETS in the home. A pre- and post-intervention quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design was utilized. The intervention targeted households in which having a smoke-free home within the next six months was not even contemplated. Respondents from 1135 households in which both a smoker and a child lived participated in a pre-intervention telephone survey, with 1044 participating one year later, following the intervention. Outcome measures were awareness of the campaign in the intervention and control sites, and movement along Prochaska's stages of change model toward smoke-free home status.

Respondents in the intervention site were more likely to recall particulars of the social marketing campaign at post-test than were those from the control site (65% vs. 10%) (χ² (1, N = 1042) = 323.724, p<.001). The proportion of pre-contemplation households in the intervention site dropped substantially between pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys (χ² (1, N = 1107) = 37.950, p<.001), but the same was true in the control site (χ² (1, N = 1068) = 36.627 p<.001). The magnitude of change toward smoke-free homes did not differ between intervention and control sites. Caution is urged in respect to strategies often used to evaluate social marketing campaigns, such as focus on campaign reach, attention to knowledge and attitudes but not behaviour, and failure to utilize control sites.

Key words:

• Social Marketing
• Tobacco Smoke Pollution
• Passive Smoking
• Health Promotion
• Smoking
• Public Health
• Public Policy