Association of smoking opinions and risk perception with smoking status in Serbia adults
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1
Institute of Public Health of Serbia, Office for Smoking Prevention, Serbia
2
University of the Witwatersrand, Perinatal HIV Research Unit, South Africa
3
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Center for Tuberculosis Research, Department of Medicine, United States of America
4
SoMCHAT MRC Collaborating Centre for HIV/AIDS and TB, South Africa
5
Wake Forest School of Medicine, Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, United States of America
Publication date: 2018-03-01
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 1):A855
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ABSTRACT
Background:
Overall, Serbian adults are aware of the
association of smoking with malignant diseases. However, it is not known whether adult smokers
perceive this a risk for future concern. The study objective is to understand
how smoking related opinions and risk perception in Serbian adults is associated
with smoking status in order to support planning of targeted interventions.
Methods:
Secondary analysis of data drawn from a 2014
cross sectional, National Survey on Lifestyles of Citizens in Serbia.
Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the association of smoking
opinions and risk perception with smoking status.
Results:
A total sample of 5385 adults aged 18-64 years were
analysed with a smoking prevalence of 39.8%. Tobacco use ranked 15th
of 17 listed problems in Serbia by its perceived importance. Opinions on tobacco
use as a problem significantly differs by smoking status (p< 0.001, χ2=90.04).
Among those (75.5%) who report tobacco use as rather important or an important
problem, 44.5%, are non-smokers, 36.5% are current smokers and 19.1% ex-smokers.
There is also a significant difference (p< 0.05, χ2=329.22) in risk
perception according to smoking status, 66.5% of adults perceived smoking one
or more packs of cigarettes per day to be great risk, of which 48.9%, are non-smokers
31.7% are smokers and 19.4% are ex-smokers. Those who think tobacco is an important
problem compared with people who think it is not a problem (OR 1.6, p< 0.001)
and those who perceive smoking as not risky (OR,7.0, p< 0.001) compared with
those who think it is a great risk, have higher odds of being smokers.
Conclusions:
Despite high prevalence, smoking is not recognized as
important problem in society. Among current smokers, risk perception is low. Findings call for interventions aimed at
changing risk perception and opinions on importance of tobacco control.