Knowledge of the health consequences of tobacco smoking: a cross-sectional survey of Vietnamese adults

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough substantial efforts have been made to curtail smoking in Vietnam, the 2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) revealed that the proportion of male adults currently smoking remains high at 47.4%.ObjectivesTo determine the level of, and characteristics associated with, knowledge of the health consequences of smoking among Vietnamese adults.DesignGATS 2010 was designed to survey a nationally representative sample of Vietnamese men and women aged 15 and older drawn from 11,142 households using a two-stage sampling design. Descriptive statistics were calculated and multivariate logistic regression was used to examine associations between postulated exposure factors (age, education, access to information, ethnic group etc.) and knowledge on health risks.ResultsGeneral knowledge on the health risks of active smoking (AS) and exposure to second hand smoke (SHS) was good (90% and 83%, respectively). However, knowledge on specific diseases related to tobacco smoking (stroke, heart attack, and lung cancer) appeared to be lower (51.5%). Non-smokers had a significantly higher likelihood of demonstrating better knowledge on health risks related to AS (OR 1.6) and SHS (OR 1.7) than smokers. Adults with secondary education, college education or above also had significantly higher levels knowledge of AS/SHS health risks than those with primary education (AS: ORs 1.6, 1.7, and 1.9, respectively, and SHS: ORs 2.4, 3.9, and 5.7 respectively). Increasing age was positively associated with knowledge of the health consequences of SHS, and access to information was significantly associated with knowledge of AS/SHS health risks (ORs 2.3 and 1.9 respectively). Otherwise, non-Kinh ethnic groups had significantly less knowledge on health risks of AS/SHS than Kinh ethnic groups.ConclusionsIt may be necessary to target tobacco prevention programs to specific subgroups including current smokers, adults with low education, non-Kinh ethnics in order to increase their knowledge on health risks of smoking. Comprehensive messages and/or images about specific diseases related to AS/SHS should be conveyed using of different channels and modes specific to local cultures to increase knowledge on smoking health consequences for general population.

Awareness and Knowledge of Smoking-Related Cancers Among University Students in Jordan

“…Contrary to other studies, there was no significant difference in knowledge scores between current smokers and current non-smokers [7,18,27,28]. A prior study among university students in Jordan, with 28.6% of their sample being current smokers, found that non-smokers were more aware of the harmful effects of smoking [7].…”

Health Status and the Demand for Healthcare among the Elderly in the Rural Quoc-Oai District of Hanoi in Vietnam

“…An et al [22] reported that adults living in urban areas were more knowledgeable about the harmful health effects of active and passive smoking than those living in rural areas, and these significant differences in knowledge were related to access to health information. The fact that more than half of the participants in this study required health information from health professionals indicates a need to develop strategies for providing information efficiently to elderly people in rural areas.…”

Relationship between knowledge about the harms of smoking and smoking status in the 2010 Global Adult Tobacco China Survey

“…Second, previous studies usually limited their reports to the results from univariate analyses. 12 13 Failure to consider the many potential confounders by using multvariate techniques may lead to biased estimates of the real relationship between behaviour and knowledge. For example, low levels of education, ‘blue collar’ occupations and unemployment are associated with both smoking 14 – 16 and lower levels of knowledge about the harms of smoking.…”

“…Using standard multivariate logistic regression, estimates of the relationship of smoking behaviour to a single indicator (eg, knowledge about the risk of heart disease in smokers) may be inflated because of this intercorrelation. 12 13 19 20 Some studies use an overall knowledge score (typically by summing up all items) to deal with this issue, but this makes it impossible to identify the independent effects of specific items of knowledge and, moreover, assumes that there is a linear relationship between the knowledge score and smoking behaviour 8 9 without inspecting the nature of the relationship. A clear understanding of the relationship between specific items of knowledge and the initiation or cessation of smoking requires the use of techniques that adjust for the intercorrelations between different items of knowledge; this can be accomplished by constructing latent variables that, when inserted in the models, adjust the analysis for the general level of knowledge about smoking.…”