Abstract
BackgroundSmoking is a global public health concern. Timor-Leste is facing a rapidly growing epidemic of tobacco use. The trend of smoking in Timor-Leste seems to be increasing and the magnitude of the problem affects people who smoke before reaching adulthood. One of the factors implicated in the continuously rising trend of smoking among young people in Timor-Leste is clearly due to unavailability of restrictive laws and regulations. Therefore, our study sought to analyze available dataset from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) for developing a comprehensive national smoking policy in order to lower smoking risks among young people in Timor-Leste.MethodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of the 2009 GYTS in Timor-Leste. The 2009 GYTS assessed 1657 in-school students aged 13–15 years for current smoking prevalence and determinants of tobacco use. We used IBM SPSS version 21 software to analyze the data. Frequency analyses were computed to identify demographic characteristics of study participants. Bivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between each demographic characteristic as well as each independent variable and the outcome of being current smokers.ResultsOut of 1657 in-school students, 51 % were of ages less than 15; 53 % were girls; and 45 % were in grade 2. Prevalence of current cigarette smoking was found to be 51 %. The prevalence of current smoking among in-school students increased with ages (from 46 % in less than 15 to 57 % in 15 plus). Boys were more likely to be smokers than girls (59 % versus 28 %). Significant factors positively associated with current smoking included parental smoking; closed-peer smoking; number of days people smoked in the house; having family discussion about harmful effects of smoking; being smoking in areas such as school, public places and home; and having seen cigarette advertisements on billboard.ConclusionTimor-Leste has higher prevalence of cigarette smoking among minors, especially among boys. Our analysis provides evidence-based information for developing comprehensive tobacco control programs - both education and policy interventions to reduce smoking rate among young people in Timor-Leste.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2742-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Smoking is a global public health concern
TimorLeste carried out the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) in 2006 and 2009 and data from these surveys could be used as baseline for evaluation of the tobacco control programs implemented by the Ministry of Health (MoH), and for development of national smoking policy by the policy makers of the Timor-Leste government
Undoubtedly, smoking behavior among adolescents in Timor-Leste is associated with some determinant factors such as availability of the product, easy access or lack of restrictive laws and other factors such as family and peer smoking
Summary
Smoking is a global public health concern. Timor-Leste is facing a rapidly growing epidemic of tobacco use. Our study sought to analyze available dataset from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) for developing a comprehensive national smoking policy in order to lower smoking risks among young people in Timor-Leste. There are 1.2 billion people who smoke globally, of whom more than 50 % are young people [1] This source reports that in the Southeast Asia and Pacific Region, including Timor-Leste, there are about 600 million tobacco users, of whom 90 % begin under the age of 18. A study carried out in Minhang district of China found that smokers spent 60 % of their personal income and 17 % of household income was likely to be spent on cigarettes [4] This source reports that smoker’s family in the Philippines is likely to spend 20 % of the household income on tobacco
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