Factors associated with awareness of the law banning public smoking and reasons behind smoking in public in Kalingalinga township, Lusaka

Abstract

The hazardous effects of tobacco smoking on health have been re-echoed world all over for over half a century now. Nearly, 80 % of the world’s tobacco-related deaths occur in low and middle income countries. Zambia, a middle income country and a signed party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO, FCTC) has instituted restrictive policies (laws) to curb cigarette smoking behaviour. The Public Health Act Cap 295 enforced into a punishable offence by the introduction of Statutory Instrument No. 39 of 2008 of the Local Government forbids smoking of cigarettes in public places. However, despite the existence of this law cigarette smoking behaviour, even in public places, estimated at 19% for males above the age of 15 and 2% for women above the age of 15 years is believed to be on an increase in Zambia and the rest of Africa. The objectives of the study were to assess awareness levels of the law banning public smoking, determine socio-economic predictors of awareness of the same law as well as reasons behind public smoking, using Kalingalinga Township as a study site. The study also aimed to establish efficient and effective forms of media for relegating tobacco legislative information. This was a cross-sectional study of 420 households of Kalingalinga Township in which a structured questionnaire was used to collect information. The 420 households were selected by way of systematic sampling procedure and participants of consenting age were the only ones included in the study. The information collected was entered and analysed using Stata V.12. The study found 60.71% of the participants were aware of the law banning public smoking. Of the whole respondents 16.8% were totally aware of all aspects of the law; when the law was instituted and how long a person can be jailed for. Those merely aware of when the law was instituted were 31.76 % whilst those aware of how long a person can be jailed for were 35.07 %. The odds of being aware of the law banning public smoking, for those in constant touch with some form of media (Television, Newspaper, Radio) were 1.78 (p< 0.001, C.I 1.54 - 2.05) to none. Television was found to be the most effective and efficient form of media accounting for 33% awareness whilst the Radio 16% and News paper 17%. The majority in the smoker group (54 %) as well as the majority in the non-smoker group (34%) were both of the view that public smoking is due to lack of enforcement of the law prohibiting public smoking. From the findings, it is recommended that policy makers consider using television more than any other form of media when promulgating information of statutory nature on tobacco or any information related to tobacco smoking since it has the greatest coverage and impact. Policy makers should also consider strict enforcement of the law prohibiting public smoking to promote awareness of the same law and to curb tobacco smoking behaviour believed to be on an increase. Lastly, research to assess and determine challenges faced with implementation of the law banning public smoking seems imperative since no such research has been conducted before. Keywords: Public smoking, Tobacco legislature, Public Health, Tobacco control