| Summary: | Background
Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure continues to be a major problem across
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Studies have called for immediate steps to address
SHS exposure in SSA. Although several SSA countries are implementing smoke-free
policies (SFPs), public support of these policies can affect their
success. While support for SFPs has been studied in other countries,
there is limited literature on SFPs in SSA. This study estimated the prevalence
and factors associated with support for SPFs in four SSA countries.
Methods
Data from 27,952 participants of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey
conducted in Nigeria (2012), Cameroon (2013), Uganda (2013) and Kenya (2014) were
analyzed. Supports for smoking ban in eight public places were assessed. Descriptive
analysis was conducted to estimate prevalence of support for SPF for the eight
places and any support (defined as a support for SFP in at least one public
place) for each country and pooled data. A multivariable logistic regression
was used to examine factors associated with any support for SFPs. We report
odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI).
Results
Support for any SFP was 99.3% ,99.4%, 99.8%, and 99.8%
in Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon and Nigeria, respectively. In the pooled data,
support for SFPs ranged from 64.4% in restaurants to 98.8% in worship places.
Adjusting for covariates, support for SFPs was significantly increased in
participants who were aware of SHS harm, believed smoking causes serious
illness, lived in homes where smoking is restricted, lived in smoke-free homes,
resided in countries where three to five public places were completely
smoke-free, and those aged 15-44 years.
Conclusions
The results suggest that support for SFPs increases as
the number of smoke-free public places in a country increases. Implementing complete
SFPs as described in the WHO FCTC in the SSA countries will likely succeed due
to the prevailing high support for these policies.
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