Knowledge and attitude toward smoke-free legislation and second-hand smoking exposure among workers in indoor bars, beer parlors and discotheques in Osun State of Nigeria

A Comprehensive Tobacco Control Policy Program in a Mining Industry in Indonesia: Did It Work?

Background

Risk factor controls, including smoking cessation and prevention, impact health costs. This study aimed to describe the Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), one of Indonesia's largest coal mining operations, comprehensive tobacco control policy program in 2015 and its impact on smoking behavior among the employees.

Method

A survey among 404 employees was conducted to assess the impact of the smoke-free KPC programs. In addition to the descriptive analysis, logistic regression was used to measure the association of intention to the smoking behavior change and the association between intention and the determinants using the Theory of Planned Behavior in 102 smokers.

Results

A series of tobacco control programs: advocacy, health education, brief interventions for smoking cessation, peer counselor training, media campaigns, and policy regulations were implemented. About 95.5% of the respondents attended the KPC Smoke-Free 2015 programs, and 97.8% reported they already knew that KPC is a total smoke-free area. Nearly 50% of the respondents expressed that the staff complied with the rules and no longer smoked in KPC. Majority of smokers (76.6%) reduced their consumption, and 5.6% of them quit smoking. Among smokers, we found that attitude toward smoking cessation, subjective norm, and perceived control for quitting were related to the intention to stop smoking.

Conclusions

The KPC smoke-free policy has been comprehensively implemented. Regulations on smoking and tobacco controls should be maintained, and monitoring should be consistently done. Media campaigns on the regulations and the availability of trained peer educators for smoking cessation help need to be applied continuously.

Adherence to smoke-free policies in Ghana: Findings from a cross-sectional survey of hospitality venue owners and staff

INTRODUCTION

Implementation of and compliance with smoke-free policies (SFPs) can be problematic in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to limited resources. This study evaluated knowledge, opinions and compliance related to Ghana’s SFPs among owners and staff of hospitality venues by city, staff designation, and venue type.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study design was used in venue types including hotels, bars, pubs and restaurants in the three cities of Kumasi, Accra, and Tamale, in Ghana.

Data were collected between July and September 2019. Interviewer administered face-to-face surveys were conducted with owners and staff (n=142) recruited from randomly selected hospitality venues (n=154) in these three large cities of Ghana. The relationship between knowledge, opinions, and compliance items on SFPs, and city, venue type and staff designation was first studied using χ² or a Fisher’s exact test, and then with univariate logistic regression model analysis.

RESULTS

Of the 142 respondents, some had heard of Ghana’s 2012 Tobacco Control Act (27.5%), smoking restriction in public places (29%), smoke-free places (22%), and display of ‘no smoking’ signage (6.3%). Knowledge levels were higher in Accra compared to Tamale (OR=3.08; 95% CI: 1.10–8.60). Staff designation and type of venue did not have any relationship with knowledge levels. Support for SFPs was over 80%, but opinions in support of SFPs were lower in Accra than Tamale (OR=0.25; 95% CI: 0.08–0.71). Compliance with SFPs was similar in the three cities. Hotels were three times more compliant compared to bars and pubs (OR=3.16; 95% CI: 1.48–6.71).

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlights the strong support for restriction of smoking in public places including hospitality venues despite poor knowledge and low compliance levels with the current SFPs. A review of the current SFP in Ghana together with education of hospitality staff on the benefits and requirements of SFPs is recommended.

Second-Hand Smoke Exposure at Home in the United States; Minorities' Diminished Returns

Introduction

Educational attainment and poverty status are two strong socioeconomic status (SES) indicators that protect individuals against exposure to second-hand smoke. Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs), however, refer to smaller protective effects of SES indicators among ethnic minority groups such as Hispanics and Blacks, compared to non-Hispanic Whites. This study explored ethnic differences in the effects of educational attainment and poverty status on second-hand smoke exposure in the homes of American adults.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 18,274 non-smoking adults who had participated in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH; 2013). The independent variables were educational attainment and poverty status. The dependent variable was second-hand smoke exposure at home. Age and region of residence were the covariates. Ethnicity was the moderator.

Results

Overall, individuals with a higher educational attainment (odds ratio [OR] = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.74-0.79) and those who lived out of poverty (OR = 0.56, 95% CI =0.51-0.62) had lower odds of second-hand smoke exposure at home. Hispanic ethnicity showed significant interactions with both SES indicators, suggesting that the protective effects of education and poverty on second-hand smoke exposure at home are smaller for Hispanics (ORs for interaction with education and poverty status = 1.30 and 1.26, P < 0.05) than for Non-Hispanics.

Conclusion

In the US, high SES Hispanics remain at high risk of exposure to second-hand smoke at home despite a high education and income. High SES better reduces environmental exposures for non-Hispanic than for Hispanic individuals.

Implementing smoke-free policies in low- and middle-income countries: A brief review and research agenda

INTRODUCTION

Some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) struggle to implement smoke-free policies. We sought to review the academic and gray literature, and propose a research agenda to improve implementation of smoke-free policies and make them more effective in LMICs.

METHODS

We reviewed 10 databases for variations of (‘implementation’ /‘enforcement’ /‘compliance’) and (‘smoke-free’ /‘ban’ /‘restriction’) and (‘tobacco’ /‘smoking’). We also reviewed cited sources and the gray literature including non-governmental organization reports.

We included articles that described problems that arose, attempted solutions, lessons learned, and research questions posed regarding smoke-free policy implementation in LMICs. We excluded studies of high-income countries, institution-level implementation, voluntary smoke-free policies, smoke-free homes, and outdoor smoke-free policies.

RESULTS

The academic literature review led to 4931 unique articles, reduced to 1541 after title screening, 331 after abstract screening, and 101 after full-text review. The citation and gray literature review led to an additional 179 publications of which 67 met the inclusion criteria. In total we retained 168 sources. We conducted a narrative review and synthesis of the literature, extracting key themes and noting research gaps.

CONCLUSIONS

We find that progress is urgently needed in five categories: identifying the critical lessons learned for effective implementation, evaluating different enforcement approaches, learning how to rejuvenate stalled smoke-free policies, learning how to increase ground-level will to enforce policies, and developing a conceptual framework that explains implementation. Investigation into these topics can improve implementation of smoke-free policies in LMICs.

Smoke-Free Workplaces Are Associated with Protection from Second-Hand Smoke at Homes in Nigeria: Evidence for Population-Level Decisions

The evidence suggests that smoke-free workplace policies may change social norms towards exposing others to second-hand smoke at home. The aim of the study was to assess whether being employed in a smoke-free workplace (SFWP) is associated with living in a smoke-free home (SFH). We used the data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey conducted in Nigeria in 2012, in which 9,765 individuals were interviewed including 1,856 persons who worked indoors. The percentage of Nigerians employed in SFWP that reported living in a SFH was higher compared to those employed in a workplace where smoking occurred (95% versus 73%). Working in a SFWP was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of living in a SFH (OR = 5.3; p < 0.001). Urban inhabitants indicated more frequently that they lived in SFH compared to rural residents (OR = 2.0; p = 0.006). The odds of living in a SFH were significantly higher among nonsmokers and nonsmokeless tobacco users compared to smokers and smokeless tobacco users (OR = 28.8; p < 0.001; OR = 7.0; p < 0.001). These findings support the need for implementation of comprehensive smoke-free policies in Nigeria that result in substantial health benefits.