Assessing the Factors Associated with Smoking at Public Universities with Smoke-Free Campus Policy in Malaysia

Abstract

The smoke-free campus policy in universities is one effort to combat smoking habits and to create non-smoking social norms. This is important, as young adulthood represents a critical period for the development of tobacco use. Thus, this study aimed to assess the factors associated with smoking at public universities with smoke-free campus policy in Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional study performed at the two public universities in Malaysia that were the earliest to have implemented the policy. The study involved a total of 1,063 respondents, stratified by the number of students and staff and aged ≥18 years. Data were collected from September 2019 to November 2019 using a self-administered online questionnaire. Among the respondents, 5.2% were smokers. The respondents had good knowledge of smoking (68.6%). The majority had negative attitudes (95.8%) and practices (89.7%) towards smoking. There were significant associations between smoking status and gender (p=<0.001; 95% CI 3.2,16.04), income level (p=0.02; 95% CI 1.16, 5.34), smoking attitude (p=0.003; 95% CI 0.12, 0.66), and practice (p=<0.001; 95% CI 0.09, 0.33). Our findings show that universities that implement a smoke-free campus policy have low smoking prevalence, good knowledge and negative attitude and practice toward smoking. However, we recommend that the relevant authorities consider all factors related to smoking status to combat smoking initiation, thereby establishing non-smoking social norms in universities.