The role of tobacco promoting and restraining factors in smoking intentions among Ghanaian youth

Abstract

BackgroundIn Western countries, the relationship between smoking intentions and smoking behaviour is well established. However, youth smoking intentions and associated factors in developing countries are largely unexplored and the former may occur for a variety of reasons. We investigated youth smoking intentions in Ghana with regard to several tobacco promoting and restraining factors, including environmental, familial, attitudinal and knowledge measures.MethodsA school-based survey of a representative sample of 12-20-year-olds was conducted in 2008 in Ghana (N = 1338, response rate 89.7%).ResultsIn a bivariate model, both among ever and never smokers, allowing smoking on school compound, exposure to tobacco advertisement and parental smoking were associated with future intention to smoke. Compared to those who agreed that smoking is harmful to health, smoking is difficult to quit and that tobacco should not be sold to minors, those who disagreed or were not sure were more likely to have an intention to smoke. In the multivariate analyses, these associations persisted, except that the attitude measures concerning the difficulty of quitting smoking once started and tobacco sales ban were no longer significantly associated with smoking intentions.ConclusionsThese findings underscore the importance of school smoking policy, parental smoking behaviour and knowledge of the harmful effects of tobacco use in determining Ghanaian youths’ future smoking intentions. Because current high percentages of smoking intentions may turn into high smoking rates in the future, the introduction of effective tobacco control measures at all levels of society to prevent youth smoking in Ghana may be essential.

The Experiences of South-Western Taiwanese Male Adolescents Controlling Their Smoking After Exposure to an Education Program

“…1 Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Chiayi, Taiwan 2 Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia of variables associated with quitting smoking/intention to quit smoking of youths, including parental smoking behavior, youth's perceived confidence to quit and perceived importance of quitting, past quit attempts, physical activity, and knowledge of the harmful effects of tobacco use (Doku, Raisamo, & Wiium, 2012;Savvides et al, 2014;Wong et al, 2011).…”

Influences of Mass Media, Family, and Friends Towards Adolescents’ Smoking in Yogyakarta

“…Sekitar sepertiga hingga setengah dari jumlah remaja yang mencoba rokok akan mengalami ketergantungan ketika dewasa (Chalela, Velez, & Ramirez, 2007). Dari sudut kesehatan masyarakat negara berkembang, memahami faktor-faktor yang memengaruhi perilaku merokok pada remaja menjadi kunci untuk menyusun program intervensi yang sesuai (Doku, Raisamo, & Wiium, 2012). Selain itu, mengetahui onset remaja dalam mencoba rokok adalah hal penting sebagai landasan merancang intervensi (Colder et al, 2001;Johnston, Westphal, Earnshaw, & Thomas, 2012).…”

“…Selain itu, mengetahui onset remaja dalam mencoba rokok adalah hal penting sebagai landasan merancang intervensi (Colder et al, 2001;Johnston, Westphal, Earnshaw, & Thomas, 2012). Telah banyak penelitian tentang perilaku merokok pada remaja di negara maju, tetapi penelitian serupa masih jarang dilakukan di negara berkembang (Doku, Raisamo, & Wiium, 2012).…”

“…Remaja menggunakan rokok untuk mengurangi tekanan yang mereka alami (Mason, Mennis, & Schmidt, 2011) sehingga intervensi yang perlu dilakukan tidak hanya edukasi mengenai bahaya merokok tetapi juga cara mengelola stres (Chalela, Velez, & Ramirez, 2007). Remaja yang merokok juga merasa bahwa masalah kesehatan terkait rokok tidak akan menimpa mereka karena mereka masih muda dan kuat (Doku, Raisamo, & Wiium, 2012).…”

Prevalence and risk factors associated with tobacco smoking among adults in India: a nationally representative household survey

“…Tobacco smoking is one of the major public health threats in the world [1], and tobacco is a highly addictive material [2]. Globally, tobacco smoking remains one of the most important causes of diseases and deaths [3][4][5]. Two third of the tobacco smokers in the world live in low and middle income countries [6].…”