Environmental tobacco smoke is harmful to children's health. Guidelines recommend that clinician's inquire about the smoking status of patients and provide smoking cessation counselling. Paediatricians are less likely to provide this. A child's admission provides an opportunity to offer smoking cessation advice to smoking parents as the health concerns of their children are immediate and motivation is stronger.

Aims: To determine whether smoking parents are interested in enrolling in one of 3 programs offered during their child's admission; written self-help materials, a telephone quitline or a smoking cessation clinic. Further to identify factors that influence the choice of intervention, including the nature of the child's condition, parental knowledge of the health effects of passive smoking and perceived benefits of the three options.

Method: This will be a 12month study involving completion of a questionnaire and performance of a Carbon Monoxide Exhaled Breath Test. Subjects will be smoking parents, of children admitted with chronic medical condition, who elect to choose one of the three interventions offered during their child's stay. Controls will be smoking parents who do not wish to quit at the time of interview but are willing to be followed up at 12 months to ascertain their quit attempts.

Results: This study has been awarded a Sydney Children's Hospital Health Promotion Grant

Conclusions: This study will provide information on the feasibility of recruiting smoking parents of children with chronic disease into smoking cessation programs during their child's hospitalisation.

Implications: If successful this health promotion initiative could be adopted by other Paediatric Health Services.