Smoking Cessation for Fathers of Sick Children

Targeted participants are fathers of sick children who smoke daily in the past 7 days and live together with their children. The primary caregiver will be selected if both parents smoke. Participants will be recruited from pediatric wards/outpatient departments of Queen Mary Hospital (QMH), a major acute hospital in Hong Kong. The recruitment will be extended to other public hospitals if needed.

This study will be a two-arm, parallel pilot randomized trial with follow-ups at 1-, 3-, and 6-month since enrolment using standard methodology (CONSORT) to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Surveys will be collected via telephone and children's saliva will be collected face-to-face at 3-months and 6-months after randomisation using Alere iScreen OFD saliva cotinine test device. Semi-structured individual telephone or face-to-face in-depth interviews will be conducted with the participants in the intervention group at 6 months follow-up to explore the participants' perception towards the intervention.

This study's clinical outcome will be biochemically validated abstinence at 3 months after randomisation. Secondary outcomes include validated abstinence at 6 months after randomisation, self-reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence (PPA), 24-hour quit attempts, and smoking reduction by at least 50% at 3 and 6 months. Incentives of HK$200 will be given to participants who report 7-day PPA at 1 month post randomisation. Additionally, incentives of HK$ 500 will be provided for the completion of each biochemical validation (a total $1000 for validation at 3- and 6-month). Such an amount can increase the response rate in our experience. Another incentive of $200 will be given to subjects completing qualitative interviews.

Inclusion criteria

for parents：

• Parents (mainly fathers) aged ≥18 years and smoke at least one cigarette (including alternative tobacco products) daily in the past seven days
• Living with a child aged <18 years who attended the clinic or were admitted to the pediatric ward
• Hong Kong residents able to read and communicate in Cantonese or Putonghua
• Owned a smartphone and can use an instant messaging app (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook) Inclusion criteria for children
• Children aged <18 years who attended the clinic or were admitted to the pediatric ward
• Lives with at least one or more parents who smoke at least one cigarette (including alternative tobacco products) daily in the past seven days
• Able to provide biochemical samples (e.g. saliva) for purpose of research

Exclusion criteria

for parents

• Smokers having a history of psychiatric/psychological disease or currently on regular psychotropic medications
• Smokers using smoking cessation medications or other smoking cessation services or projects Exclusion criteria for children
• Children who already have serious health diseases (e.g.chronic disease, genetic disease)
• Children who are participating in other clinical trials that may affect the results of this study
• Children who live in certain environments, such as those living in highly contaminated areas or areas with other potential disease-causing factors