MacCalman, L, Semple, S, Galea, KS, Van Tongeren, M, Dempsey, S, Hilton, S, Gee, I and Ayres, JG (2012) The relationship between workers' self-reported changes in health and their attitudes towards a workplace intervention: lessons from smoke-free legislation across the UK hospitality industry. BMC Public Health, 12. ISSN 1471-2458

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Abstract

Background: The evaluation of smoke-free legislation (SFL) in the UK examined the impacts on exposure to second-hand smoke, workers’ attitudes and changes in respiratory health. Studies that investigate changes in the health of groups of people often use self-reported symptoms. Due to the subjective nature it is of interest to determine whether workers’ attitudes towards the change in their working conditions may be linked to the change in health they report.

Methods: Bar workers were recruited before the introduction of the SFL in Scotland and England with the aim of investigating their changes to health, attitudes and exposure as a result of the SFL. They were asked about their
attitudes towards SFL and the presence of respiratory and sensory symptoms both before SFL and one year later. Here we examine the possibility of a relationship between initial attitudes and changes in reported symptoms,
through the use of regression analyses.

Results: There was no difference in the initial attitudes towards SFL between those working in Scotland and England. Bar workers who were educated to a higher level tended to be more positive towards SFL. Attitude towards SFL was not found to be related to change in reported symptoms for bar workers in England (Respiratory, p = 0.755; Sensory, p = 0.910). In Scotland there was suggestion of a relationship with reporting of respiratory symptoms (p = 0.042), where those who were initially more negative to SFL experienced a greater improvement in self-reported health.

Conclusions: There was no evidence that workers who were more positive towards SFL reported greater improvements in respiratory and sensory symptoms. This may not be the case in all interventions and we recommend examining subjects’ attitudes towards the proposed intervention when evaluating possible health benefits using self-reported methods.

Keywords: ‘Self-Reported Health’, Attitudes, ‘Workplace Intervention’, ‘Public Health Intervention’

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1117 Public Health And Health Services
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Divisions:	Public Health Institute
Publisher:	BioMed Central
Related URLs:	Author
Date Deposited:	15 Jul 2015 14:42
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2021 14:13
DOI or ID number:	10.1186/1471-2458-12-324
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/1583

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