TY - JOUR T1 - Significant reduction of COPD hospitalizations after implementation of a public smoking ban in Graubünden, Switzerland JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - P2096 AU - Frank Dusemund AU - Florent Baty AU - Martin Hugo Brutsche Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P2096.abstract N2 - BackgroundOnly few studies have examined the effect of public smoking bans on respiratory conditions. These showed reduced admission rates for different respiratory diseases. Objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the public smoking ban implemented in Graubünden, Switzerland, on the incidence of acute hospital admissions for COPD, pneumonia, asthma and bronchitis.MethodsWe searched a database including all nation-wide hospitalizations in Switzerland for COPD, pneumonia, asthma and bronchitis and analysed incidence rate ratios (IRR) before and after introduction of the smoking ban using Poisson regression and incidence rate ratios.ResultsAfter introduction of the smoking ban we observed a significant 22.4%-decrease in the incidence of COPD hospitalizations in Graubünden (IRR = 0.78 (0.68-0.88), p<0.001). In the same period the incidence of COPD hospitalizations only slightly decreased by 7.0% in the rest of Switzerland (IRR = 0.93 (0.91-0.95), p<0.001). The observed reduction in COPD incidence was significantly greater in Graubünden than in the rest of Switzerland (p=0.008). For asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, we could not find a significant decrease of incidence in Graubünden.ConclusionOur study supports the limited body of evidence demonstrating that a reduction of second hand smoke by legislated bans on smoking are associated with reduced rates of admission to hospital for respiratory conditions, hereby shown for COPD, in addition to the meanwhile well documented impact on cardiovascular disease. ER -