Assessing the Impact of the National Smoking Ban in Indoor Public Places in China: Evidence from Quit Smoking Related Online Searches

<div><p>Background</p><p>Despite the tremendous economic and health costs imposed on China by tobacco use, China lacks a proactive and systematic tobacco control surveillance and evaluation system, hampering research progress on tobacco-focused surveillance and evaluation studies.</p><p>Methods</p><p>This paper uses online search query analyses to investigate changes in online search behavior among Chinese Internet users in response to the adoption of the national indoor public place smoking ban. Baidu Index and Google Trends were used to examine the volume of search queries containing three key search terms “Smoking Ban(s),” “Quit Smoking,” and “Electronic Cigarette(s),” along with the news coverage on the smoking ban, for the period 2009–2011.</p><p>Findings</p><p>Our results show that the announcement and adoption of the indoor public place smoking ban in China generated significant increases in news coverage on smoking bans. There was a strong positive correlation between the media coverage of smoking bans and the volume of “Smoking Ban(s)” and “Quit Smoking” related search queries. The volume of search queries related to “Electronic Cigarette(s)” was also correlated with the smoking ban news coverage.</p><p>Interpretation</p><p>To the extent it altered smoking-related online searches, our analyses suggest that the smoking ban had a significant effect, at least in the short run, on Chinese Internet users’ smoking-related behaviors. This research introduces a novel analytic tool, which could serve as an alternative tobacco control evaluation and behavior surveillance tool in the absence of timely or comprehensive population surveillance system. This research also highlights the importance of a comprehensive approach to tobacco control in China.</p></div

Baidu E-cigarette Searchers – Demographic Characteristics.

<p>Baidu E-cigarette Searchers – Demographic Characteristics.</p

Baidu Relative Search Volume.

<p>Marked Dates May 1, 2010: Smoking ban announced by CMOH January 1, 2011: Smoking ban effective date initially announced by CMOH May 1, 2011: Smoking ban adopted and became effective.</p

Baidu Quitting Smoking Searchers – Demographic Characteristics.

<p>Baidu Quitting Smoking Searchers – Demographic Characteristics.</p

Top searched terms related to “electronic cigarette(s)” on baidu by quarter.

<p>Note:</p><p>The superscript “™” represents the trade mark or a brand name of an electronic cigarette product.</p><p>The symbol “*” means the data are not available.</p

Google Relative Search Volume.

<p>Marked Dates May 1, 2010: Smoking ban announced by CMOH January 1, 2011: Smoking ban effective date initially announced by CMOH May 1, 2011: Smoking ban adopted and became effective.</p

Number of News Items on Smoking Bans in Chinese Media.

<p>Marked Dates May 1, 2010: Smoking ban announced by CMOH January 1, 2011: Smoking ban effective date initially announced by CMOH May 1, 2011: Smoking ban adopted and became effective.</p

Top searched terms related to “quit smoking” on baidu by quarter.

<p>Note: The Chinese Characters “戒烟” can mean “Stop Smoking,” “Quit Smoking,” “Smoking Cessation,” and/or “No Tobacco.” The Chinese PinYin for “戒烟 is “Jie Yan.”.</p><p>The superscript “™” represents the trade mark or a brand name of a smoking cessation product.</p><p>The symbol “*” means the data are not available.</p

Making a quit attempt and quitting smoking for ≥ 30 days by ENDS use and characteristics of ends use among all baseline smokers (N = 822) and baseline daily smokers (N = 613^*).

<p>Making a quit attempt and quitting smoking for ≥ 30 days by ENDS use and characteristics of ends use among all baseline smokers (N = 822) and baseline daily smokers (N = 613^{<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0198047#t004fn003" target="_blank">*</a>}).</p

Smoking and ENDS use at one year follow-up for baseline dual users (Smoker + ENDS user) (N = 248).

<p>Smoking and ENDS use at one year follow-up for baseline dual users (Smoker + ENDS user) (N = 248).</p