Health and Behaviour Change

Client

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust

Project

Smoking in Hospital Entrances

A feasibility study to understand how to reduce smoking in Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust’s entrances 

 

The purpose of this feasibility study was to understand current smoking rates at hospital entrances and evaluate the impact of five co-created interventions aimed at preventing smoking outside hospital entrances. Ultimately we wanted to identify optimal target(s) for future funding dedicated to achieving smoke-free entrances at all LTHT hospitals.

The work described in our report used a mixed method approach to understand stakeholder experiences, co-designing user-led interventions and evaluating their impact on smoking rates at hospital entrances.

The motivation for this feasibility study was to reduce smoking rates at LTHT entrances by understanding patients’, visitors’ and hospital staff’s experiences, perceptions and acceptability of current levels of smoking at hospital entrances.

Our project aims:

Understand stakeholder perceptions and acceptability of current smoking levels at hospital entrances.

Co-design user-driven smoking reduction interventions at hospital entrances.

Evaluate the impact of these interventions on smoking rates at hospital entrances.

Using stakeholder insights, we co-designed five smoking reduction interventions with hospital stakeholders, all aimed at reducing smoking rates at LTHT entrances. Subsequently, we evaluated the impact of these co-designed interventions on smoking rates at four LTHT entrances in order to evaluate the study.

Two of our five co-created interventions had the biggest impact on lowering smoking rates.

1. Rebranding Smoking Shelters

The public felt the word ‘shelter’ sounded optional or a word related to the weather. Smokers felt embarrassed to be seen alone in a shelter. We used this information to redesign the shelter, calling it a ‘designated smoking area’ and created a design that also linked to the hospital’s Stop Smoking Service.

 

2. Zoning

We used floor vinyls to zone a ‘no smoking’ area outside of hospital entrances. This created a perimeter to which smokers didn’t cross upon installation.

 

RESULTS:

The hospital moved forward with our suggestion of the combined successful interventions and have since seen a decrease in the number of smokers directly outside of hospital entrances.
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