Trends in smoking in vehicles at a local community-level in New Zealand: Wainuiomata 2005-2013.

INTRODUCTION

We aimed to describe long-term trends in smoking in vehicles in a deprived local community in the Wellington region of New Zealand, and to consider the impact of a local community-initiated smokefree vehicle campaign.

METHODS

An observational study in 2013 of smoking in vehicles repeated the methods of two previous studies (conducted in 2005 and 2011) in the same location (Wainuiomata) in New Zealand. The 2013 study followed a local smokefree vehicle campaign which began in early 2013.

RESULTS

Data were systematically collected on 57,672 vehicles in 2013. The point prevalence of smoking in vehicles decreased from 6.4% (95% CI: 5.9%-7.1%) in 2005 to 4.9% in 2011 (95% CI: 4.8%-5.1%) to 3.4% in 2013 (95% CI: 3.2%-3.5%). For vehicles with others (adults and children) there was a reduction from 1.4% in 2005 to 1.1% in 2011 and to 0.7% in 2013. In vehicles with children, the decline was from 0.22% in 2011 to 0.10% in 2013 (p<0.001 for all 2011-13 comparisons). Smoking in vehicles with other people present declined three times faster during 2011-13 than during 2005-2011.

CONCLUSIONS

In the context of relatively slow change in national trends for smoking prevalence and for smoking in cars, the results appear to be consistent with the local campaign having some beneficial impact on smoking behaviour in vehicles. However, achieving fully smokefree vehicles, and the consequent health equity dividend, will probably require national-level smokefree vehicle legislation.