Hong Kong Med J 2014;20(Suppl 3):S36-41
Smoke-free policies on population health outcomes
SM McGhee, CM Wong, CM Schooling, GN Thomas, AJ Hedley, J Chau, J So, E Chan, LC Wong, TQ Thach
Department of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong
 
 
1. Poisson regression models were constructed to examine the change in trends and seasonal variations in deaths and hospital admissions before and after implementation of smoke-free law in 2007.
2. After implementation of smoke-free law, the predicted impact on hospital admissions and mortality from ischaemic heart disease was in line with findings from around the world.
3. The relatively low impact on ischaemic heart disease admissions in Hong Kong compared with other countries might be due to the fact that Hong Kong allowed exemptions from smoke-free policy until mid 2009.
4. Further analyses of future data are useful to refine the precise benefit to health.