Impacts of smoke-free public places legislation on youth smoking uptake

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Although the ban on smoking in public places has improved health by reducing exposure to second-hand smoke, it is not yet clear whether this has had any impact on youth smoking uptake. Particularly, we do not know whether this has changed the long-standing trend for youths from more disadvantaged backgrounds to be more likely to take up smoking. We will use annual survey data on 11-15 year olds from 1994-2015 to understand the impacts of the smoking ban on inequalities in the chances of young people trying smoking, becoming occasional or daily smokers, or quitting after starting smoking. We will look to see if there is an immediate impact, or a more gradual impact that increases over time. In addition, it is well known that the smoking behaviour of parents can be an important influence on smoking uptake among their teenage children. It is unclear how a smoking ban will affect the smoking behaviour of parents. A ban on smoking in public places may mean that parents of young people smoke more at home to compensate for restrictions on their smoking elsewhere. Alternatively, it may lead to it being viewed as less acceptable to smoke around young people, and parents may smoke less at home around their children. Either effect would be an important influence on youth smoking uptake, and effects could vary depending on how disadvantaged the home is. We will therefore investigate what effects the smoking ban has had on the smoking behaviour of young people's parents, and how much of any impact on youth smoking uptake is explained by this.The smoking ban is not the only important change happening in the UK that might impact on youth smoking uptake. We will use differences in the timing of these events to differentiate between the impacts of the smoking ban and other changes such as the raising of the legal age for purchasing cigarettes from 16 to 18 years, and the increasing availability and use of e-cigarettes within the UK.