McGhee S M, Hedley A J, Ho L M
Department of Community Medicine, University of Hong Kong, 5th Floor, University of Hong Kong Medical Centre, 21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong.
Occup Environ Med. 2002 Dec;59(12):842-6. doi: 10.1136/oem.59.12.842.
To estimate the prevalence of passive smoking at work in the whole workforce in Hong Kong (population 6.8 million), the characteristics of the passive smokers, any extra use of health care among passive smokers, and who pays for that health care.
A random sample of 14,325 households was contacted by telephone; 6,186 responding adults who worked full time were asked about their employment, their most recent use of health care and the cost of that care, their medical benefits, and their exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace. After weighting the sample for sex, age, household size, and income, 4,739 subjects were included in the analysis.
Of 1,961 full time workers who did not smoke, 47.5% were exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace compared with only 26% exposed at home. Exposure at work was associated with being younger, male, married, less educated, and having a lower income. Those exposed at work were 37% more likely to report having visited a doctor for a respiratory illness in the previous 14 days. Employers were paying 28% of the cost of these visits, the government paid 8%, and the individuals paid 63%. If extrapolated to the 3 million workers in the Hong Kong population, employers would pay just over US$9 million per year, while the affected workers would pay around US$20 million.
As well as the costs of active smoking, the cost of extra health care utilisation associated with passive smoking is an additional cost being paid by those employers who have not established smoke free workplaces and by their employees.
估算香港全体劳动力（人口680万）中工作场所被动吸烟的患病率、被动吸烟者的特征、被动吸烟者额外的医疗保健使用情况以及医疗保健费用的支付方。
通过电话联系了14325户家庭的随机样本；询问了6186名全职工作的成年受访者有关其就业情况、最近的医疗保健使用情况及费用、其医疗福利以及在工作场所接触二手烟的情况。在对样本进行性别、年龄、家庭规模和收入加权后，4739名受试者纳入分析。
在1961名不吸烟的全职工作者中，47.5%在工作场所接触二手烟，相比之下在家中接触二手烟的比例仅为26%。工作场所接触二手烟与年龄较轻、男性、已婚、受教育程度较低和收入较低有关。在工作场所接触二手烟的人在前14天因呼吸系统疾病就医的可能性要高37%。雇主支付这些就诊费用的28%，政府支付8%，个人支付63%。如果将此推算至香港人口中的300万工作者，雇主每年将支付略超过900万美元，而受影响的工作者将支付约2000万美元。
除主动吸烟的成本外，与被动吸烟相关的额外医疗保健使用成本是那些未设立无烟工作场所的雇主及其员工所额外支付的成本。
