Smoking and Secondhand Smoke Exposure at Home Were Associated with Poor Perceived Family Well-Being: Findings of FAMILY Project

Introduction To investigate the associations of cigarette smoking and secondhand (SHS) exposure at home with family well-being among Chinese adults in Hong Kong. Methods Telephone surveys were conducted among 3043 randomly selected adults (response rate 70%) in 2010 and 2012 to monitor family health information and tobacco use in Hong Kong. Family well-being was measured using three questions of perceived family harmony, happiness and health (3Hs) with responses ranging from 0-10 and a higher score indicating better family well-being. Smoking status, nicotine dependence, quitting behaviours and SHS exposure at home were recorded. Multiple linear regressions were used to calculate beta-coefficients for individual family 3Hs component and an overall composite score representing family well-being. Results Compared with never smokers, current smokers reported lower levels of family harmony (adjusted beta = -0.15, 95% CI: -0.35 to -0.10), happiness (adjusted beta = -0.12, 95% CI: -0.28 to -0.02), health (adjusted beta = -0.15, 95% CI: -0.30 to -0.03) and overall family well-being (adjusted beta = -0.17, 95% CI: -0.32 to -0.06). Quit attempt and intention to quit were not associated with family well-being. SHS exposure at home was associated with lower levels of family harmony (adjusted beta = -0.17, 95% CI: -0.30 to -0.07), happiness (adjusted beta = -0.19, 95% CI: -0.32 to -0.08), health (adjusted beta = -0.13, 95% CI: -0.26 to -0.03) and family wellbeing (adjusted beta = -0.19, 95% CI: -0.32 to -0.09). Conclusions Smoking and SHS exposure at home were associated with the lower levels of perceived family well-being. Prospective studies are needed to confirm the results.