[Impact of the smoke-free legislation on the prevalence and referred time exposure to the environmental tobacco smoke in Zaragoza].

OBJECTIVES

To assess the impact of the Law 42/2010, on the health measures on smoking, on the prevalence of the exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), the repercussions in frequently visited places, and support of the new legislation.

DESIGN

A before-after evaluation by comparing two cross-sectional studies the comparison of two transverse surveys.

PLACE

Primary Care, Delicias district (115,446 inhabitants) of Zaragoza city, including the Delicias Sur, Delicias Norte, Bombarda and Univérsitas basic health districts.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 387 users in 2009, and 400 in 2011 with ages between 20 and 79 years old assigned to the participating Primary Care Centres.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

Prevalences and mean exposure times, with their confidence intervals (CI). The differences were then calculated using the Chi-squared test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

RESULTS

The exposure prevalence to the ETS in 2011 was shown to be lower and statistically significant than that found before the implementation of the new legislative measure, falling from the 61.9% to the 40.5% (CI 95%=35.8-45.4%), with 61.5% of those polled being in favour of the new law (CI 95%=59.2-68.75), and 80.5% (79,08-86.44) mentioned still going to the same places with the same frequency.

CONCLUSIONS

The impact has been favourable, decreasing the exposure by more than 20%, with this fall being more marked in the population that currently define themselves as non-smokers. There is population support for the new legislation. Finally, there has been no observed fall in the frequency of visits to the same places.