Housing evidence / case study · working draft
Pinderfields: building support for smoke-free entrances
A hospital campaign used evidence of existing public support to challenge assumptions about smoking at the entrance.
01 / THE APPROACH
What was tried
Pinderfields already had a smoke-free grounds policy, but smoking continued near its entrance. Researchers surveyed patients, visitors and staff about their views and what they believed other people thought.
The campaign used a social-norms approach: making support for smoke-free entrances visible, rather than assuming smoking reflected what most hospital users wanted.
02 / THE FINDINGS
What was learned
The study included 481 survey responses before the campaign and 459 afterwards. Around nine in ten respondents supported smoke-free entrances.
After the campaign, respondents more accurately recognised others' support and reported stronger perceptions of smoke-free norms.
03 / TRANSFER TO WALES
What Wales could learn
The team first checked what hospital users actually thought, then used that local evidence in its campaign. This required a survey, communications work and a second survey to check whether perceptions changed.
The learning is about building visible support for a smoke-free entrance; the study did not establish a reduction in smoking there.
Sources & review
The impact of a social norms approach on reducing levels of misperceptions around smokefree hospital entrances amongst patients, staff, and visitors of a NHS hospital: a repeated cross-sectional survey study. BMC Public Health (2018), DOI 10.1186/s12889-018-6231-x. Primary article checked 23 October 2026. Included as engagement learning, not evidence of smoking reduction.
