The opinions of adults about the ban on cigarette sales to minors

BACKGROUND

Selling of tobacco products to minors has been banned since 1996 by the tobacco control law in Turkey. However, it is also important for the public to support practices that prevent the access of tobacco products to minors. In addition, every individual has the responsibility of carrying out society based programs that restrict access to tobacco products especially to children and the youths. Social sensitivity is considered an important factor in the prevention of tobacco use. This study aims to learn about the opinions and attitudes of adults with regards to minors access to tobacco products.

METHODS

The study was a descriptive study conducted in nine city centers in Turkey. The total number of participants reached was 3241. The questionnaire was developed by the research team and consisted of 22 questions concerning knowledge and behaviors of adults on restriction of tobacco sales to minors and their observations with regards tobacco sales to minors. Data was collected through face to face interview. Pearson chi-square test was used for the bivariate analysis whereas logistic regression was investigate the relationship between "the participant's response against tobacco sales to minors" and the following explanatory variables; "age", "educational status", "income level", "working status", "minors access to cigarettes", "smoking ratio in high school" and "sales of tobacco to minors".

RESULTS

More than half of the participants (60.5%) belonged to the age group 25-44 years, 61.3% graduated from high school or university. Most of the participants were smoker (39.2%) or ex-smoker (19.1%), and 41.7% of the participants was non-smoker. A greater proportion of the participants (76.2%) believed that smoking prevalence was greater than 40% among high school students. One in four (27.8%) adults did not know that tobacco control law bans sell of tobacco products to minors in Turkey. More than half of the participants (57.1%) ever witnessed tobacco sales to minors and 63.6% of them did not act when confronted with the event. Almost all (96.8%) of the respondents thought that access of minors to tobacco products was not difficult. The results of logistic regression of participant's response against tobacco sales to minor and related factors for current smokers showed that respondents who believed smoking ratio in high school was 4-5 adolescent out of 10 (aOR: 1.59; 95% CI: 1.09-2.34) were more likely to give a warning or informing the police or other people as compared to respondents whose perception on the smoking ratio among high school students was 6-7 adolescents out of 10. The results of logistic regression of non-smokers' response against tobacco sales to minor were who are from higher educational level, higher economic status, working status and who believed smoking ratio in high school was 4-5 adolescent out of 10 and 2-3 adolescent out of 10 were more likely to give a warning or informing the police or other people as compared to the others.

CONCLUSIONS

Although laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to the under age group is very important with regards to accessibility of minors to tobacco products, most of the study participants believed that minors can still easily access tobacco products, and more than half of the participants did not act when confronted with the event. The education, information and monitoring program most especially as it concerns salesman, should be reviewed and strengthened to obey the rules on sales of tobacco products to minors. Education program should be carried out to increase the knowledge and awareness of the community for sale of tobacco to minors. Social sensitivity is important for the prevention of tobacco use and every individual have a responsibility in carrying out this society based program, most especially as it related to prevention of tobacco usage among children and youths.

A population-based study on awareness of stroke in Turkey

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The household garbage in the western coast region of Turkey and its relationship with the socio-economic characterstics

The aim of this study is to detect the daily amount of household garbage generated from districts within the limits of municipality of Aydin, the amount and contents of recyclable materials and to evaluate the effect of socioeconomic state. In this cross sectional survey, garbage was collected for one day from all of the districts, weighed both totally and after separation into groups. The districts were assessed according to literacy, drinking water sources and toilet indexes. For each district, three indexes were calculated viz. literacy, water and sewage index. Points between 1-3 were given and by adding points of each index, socioeconomic development (SED) score was calculated for each district. The daily amount of garbage produced was 0.91 +/- 0.74 kg/person and recyclable material was 0.08 +/- 0.13 kg/person (6.4%). A significant corelation was found between SED point and amount of recyclable materials (p < 0.05). There was a positive, strong and significant correlation between workplaces in the districts and recyclable garbage (r = 0.597, p < 0.05). In further analysis, number of workplaces increased the daily amount of garbage by 9.9 times (p < 0.001; 95% confidence Interval: 4.538-15.189), whereas population 0.6 times (p < 0.05; 95% confidence interval: 0.407-0.708).

Cigarette smoking, eating behaviour, blood haematocrit level and body mass index

This study is designed to evaluate the effects of smoking on dietary habits including tea, coffee and alcohol intake; and to also evaluate haematocrit level and body mass index changes in smokers. Cross-sectional type of investigation based on a questionnaire was applied to the healthy subjects and cluster-stratified and random sampling methods were used to select the subjects from five health stations. Male and female groups were evaluated separately. Blood haematocrit levels of smokers were found to be significantly higher than that of non-smokers (p < 0.001) in both sexes. Smokers were found to consume more alcohol, coffee, saturated fat than non-smokers (p < 0.05-p < 0.0001). Smoker women consumed more tea (p < 0.0001) and less red and white meat (p < 0.05) than non-smoker women. Smokers were found to consume fewer green vegetables and fruits than non-smokers in both sexes (p < 0.05-p < 0.0001). Additionally, body mass index was found higher in the 25 or more cigarette smokers a day (p < 0.01) when compared to the non-smokers regardless of sex. These data suggest that high cancer risk and coronary heart diseases associated with smoking may be compounded by somewhat lower intake of foods which are thought to be cancer protective.

Factors affecting the morbidity of vitamin D deficiency rickets and primary protection

Rickets was investigated in 860 children in the 3 to 36 month age group in 21 villages attached to Sinik Health Centre, in northeastern Turkey. The blood calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase levels of suspect cases were determined following examination and wrist x-rays taken. The prevalence of cross-sectional rickets was determined, in the cohort group formed by removing the rickets cases (to the first group, advice was not given; to the second, 400 IU of vitamin D) and its incidence determined. The prevalence of rickets was calculated as 9.8% with no distinction observed between males and females (P > 0.05). It is higher in children in the 3-6 month group (23.97%) (P < 0.05); exposed rarely to the sun (P < 0.001); without fish in diet (P < 0.01); born to mother under 18 years old (P < 0.001); with a mother not using contraception (P < 0.01). The prevalence of acute respiratory infections (ARI) was calculated as 47.62% and 35.70% (P < 0.05) in children with and without rickets, respectively. The prevalence of enteritis was calculated as 29.76% and 18.43% (P < 0.05) in children with rickets and without rickets, respectively. Rickets was not seen where 400 IU of vitamin D was administered, while incidence for the twelve-month period was calculated as 3.8% in the other group. Combatting rickets is important in developing countries where deaths under five years are largely due to ARI and enteritis.

The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis using different methods in group screenings

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Consanguineous marriages in the province of Trabzon, Turkey

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