Tobacco in the city: the HHH study

Physical and social tobacco environment in neighborhoods in Madrid city

Tobacco is responsible for nearly 6 million deaths per year worldwide. From them, more than 5 million are or have been previous smokers. In Spain, we attribute between 1,200 and 3,200 deaths per year to second-hand smoke exposure in the non-smoking population. The objective of this project is to examine how the tobacco urban environment relates to the tobacco consumption and second-hand smoke exposure (SHS) in the population of Madrid.

This is an ancillary study of the Heart Healthy Hoods project (HHH) (European Research Council Starting Grant 2013) designed to study the association between the urban environment characteristics (physical and social), and cardiovascular risk for people who live or work in the municipality of Madrid. Tobacco environment data will be collected throughout the municipality of Madrid, including its 21 districts and 128 neighborhoods. We will analyze secondary databases of tobacco point of sales and sociodemographic characteristics of neighborhoods. In addition, we will conduct, in six neighborhoods, social systematic observation and tobacco airborne measurement (PM2.5 and nicotine) in selected outdoor locations in order to describe the visibility and exposure to SHS. We will use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze the relationship between the physical and social tobacco environment with individual data obtained from HHH cohort study on tobacco consumption and exposure to SHS (perceived and measured by cotinine).

General objective:

• To describe the physical and social tobacco environment in neighborhoods in Madrid city.

Specific objectives:

• To analyze the relation between the socioeconomic environment and tobacco availability.
• To analyze the relation between socioeconomic environment and the implementation of smoke-free laws.
• To determine possible differences between tobacco availability and self-reported smoking behaviour and SHS exposure.
• To determine possible differences between smoking visibility and/or signs of tobacco consumption and self-reported smoking behaviour and SHS smoke exposure.
  

Urban determinants of smoking behaviours

Sponsoring agency: Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (PI15/02146). Instituto de Salud Carlos III

Start date: 01/01/2016
Finish date: 31/12/2018

Duration: 36 months