Beyond 'reach': evaluating a smoke-free homes social marketing campaign.

Abstract Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is an important public health risk, with children especially vulnerable to its adverse effects. This study evaluates an evidence-based social marketing and community engagement campaign designed to address children's exposure to ETS in the home. A pre- and post-intervention quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design was utilized. The intervention targeted households in which having a smoke-free home within the next six months was not even contemplated. Respondents from 1135 households in which both a smoker and a child lived participated in a pre-intervention telephone survey, with 1044 participating one year later, following the intervention. Outcome measures were awareness of the campaign in the intervention and control sites, and movement along Prochaska's stages of change model toward smoke-free home status. Respondents in the intervention site were more likely to recall particulars of the social marketing campaign at post-test than were those fro...