Factors associated with Taiwanese junior high school personnel advising students to quit smoking

Awareness of tobacco control policies and anti-tobacco attitudes and behaviors among school personnel

INTRODUCTION

Adolescent smoking is a serious public health concern, and the role of personnel in reducing students’tobacco use has been proven. Anti-tobacco policies are strong factors for tobacco control but most are newly implemented in China. This study aimed to examine the awareness of anti-tobacco policies among school personnel in a southern city of China, and assess its influence on personnel’s anti-tobacco attitudes and behaviors towards students.

METHODS

An online cross-sectional study was conducted between September 2017 and January 2018 in schools of Shanghai, China. A total of 3194 subjects from 33 schools were selected by a two-stage stratified cluster randomized sampling design. Prevalence of anti-tobacco policy awareness is presented. Crude (ORs) and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to assess the association between policy awareness and anti-tobacco attitudes or behaviors.

RESULTS

In all, 22.4% of surveyed participants knew four or five polices presented in the survey and 13.0% of personnel knew none of these policies. Most of the participants fully support prohibiting indoor (94.6%) and outdoor (86.3%) smoking in public places, bans on tobacco advertising (90.9%), and printing warning pictures on cigarette boxes (89.5%). Less than half of the personnel had taken action to stop students from smoking (45.7%), encourage students to quit smoking (42.4%) or participated in relevant educational activities held by schools (37.4%) in the previous year. The school personnel’s anti-tobacco attitudes (AOR=1.28; 95% CI: 1.21–1.36) and behaviors (AOR=1.10; 95% CI: 1.03–1.17) were strengthened with increasing level of policy awareness.

CONCLUSIONS

The involvement of school personnel can be an important part of intervention to improve anti-tobacco campaigns on campus. The study calls for the implementation of projects or activities to improve anti-tobacco policy awareness in the school environment as part of school tobacco control strategy.

Conventional Cigarette and E-Cigarette Smoking among School Personnel in Shanghai, China: Prevalence and Determinants

Smoking cigarettes and e-cigarettes is widely popular among Chinese students. Considering that school personnel are considered role models in the student community, we investigated the prevalence and determinants of such behavior among high school personnel in China so as to provide references for future related intervention measures. We used a stratified cluster sampling design on a total number of 3311 school employees recruited from 33 representative schools. Complex sampling analysis and logistic regressions were used for univariate and multivariate analyses. Among 3194 participants that met the study criteria, 7.4% were cigarette users, and 3.6% e-cigarette consumers. For conventional cigarette smokers, certain characteristics, such as being older and male, attaining less education, and having been exposed to secondhand smoke, were associated with heavier smoking. Nevertheless, e-cigarette users were predominantly male and of younger age. Those who understood the hazards of conventional cigarette smoking had less inclination to smoke but were at a higher risk of e-cigarette use. Our analysis suggests that it is necessary to target different populations for monitoring and controlling conventional cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use respectively among school personnel. In addition, China is in need of more relevant and strict anti-smoking regulations.

Prevalence of smoking in Brazilian schoolteachers, 2016

This cross-sectional study investigated the prevalence of smoking and associated factors in a nationally representative sample of 6,510 Brazilian schoolteachers. Data were obtained from telephone interviews using a questionnaire on sociodemographic information, health status, work absenteeism, and the characteristics of teaching work. Smoking was analyzed as a dichotomous variable using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Overall smoking prevalence was 4.4%. Prevalence in men was 5.9% and was higher in those over 55 years of age (10.7%). Prevalence in women was 3.5% and was higher from 45 to 54 years of age (5.5%). The final multivariate model showed a negative association between smoking and female gender (OR = 0.46), being married or living with partner (OR = 0.53), occasional voice problems at work (OR = 0.64), and longer commuting time to and from school (OR = 0.58). The results showed positive associations between smoking and older age (OR = 2.59), living in the South (OR = 1.98) and Southeast Brazil (OR = 2.07), insufficient physical activity (OR = 1.66), and use of anxiolytics or antidepressants (OR = 2.46). Prevalence of smoking in Brazilian schoolteachers was relatively low. Unexpectedly, although cited as inadequate by the teachers, work conditions and demands in the schools did not reach statistical significance with smoking in the current study.

Adolescent Perception on School Environment and Smoking Behavior: Analysis of Isfahan Tobacco use Prevention Program

Background:

School provides a set of condition which is very important determinant for student smoking behavior. This study aims at exploring the association of the school environment on Iranian middle and high school students smoking.

Methods:

A self-administered anonymous questionnaire was circulated among 5500 randomly selected students with 98.3% response rate. The questionnaire asked on demographic information, student smoking status, and their perception on the school environment. School environment factor was consist of teacher smoking, implementation of smoke-free policy at school, student adherence to this policy, student perception of school personnel attitude and attention on smoking and finally receiving information on smoke-related issues via teachers. Analyses were performed with SPSS software using Chi-square and multiple logistic regression.

Results:

Boys with higher level of witness to teachers smoking had higher odds of being smoking (odds ratio [OR] =1.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.17, 2.25); significant relationship was seen between boy's perception regarding school anti-smoking rules and their smoking (OR = 1.40, 98% CI 1.12, 1.75); fewer concern of school personnel on student smoking behavior was correlated to boys smoking behavior (OR = 1.31, 98% CI 1.06–1.63). Among girls, only higher perceived teacher smoking (OR = 2.59, 95% CI = 1.04, 6.44) was associated with their smoking.

Conclusions:

Teachers have a crucial role in student smoking; therefore, they strategies must be taken to persuade the student, school staff, and students to adhere free-smoking policies in and out of school.