Background: Smoking is not only a personal problem but it is a problem of community
because not only smokers are affected but people around smokers are also
suffering from harmful effect of second hand smoking. In developing countries
like Bangladesh law enforcement members like police can play an important role
in societal efforts to reduce smoking in public place. This study was aimed to elucidate
the knowledge, attitude and practice of police towards smoking.
Methods: 656 male police working in different area of
Mymensingh and Dhaka city were randomly selected for the study. The period of
study was November 2016 to May 2017. Information
regarding their smoking status, knowledge about second hand smoking,
anti-tobacco strategies, and practice related to reduce smoking in public place
was collected through pre designed questionnaire.
Results: Total number of the respondent was 656. The mean age of the
participant was 31.2 years. Among the respondent most of them are constable
(57.4%) and their education level was up to Secondary. Among the respondent 35.1% were smokers and 26.7% smoke in
public place. About 79.4% know the harmful effect of second hand smoking
to health. 95.8% of the respondent
were aware of the anti-tobacco law and 52.5% inhibit smokers to smoke in
public place. 66.3% told that increase awareness among people is the best way
to reduce smoking in public place and 28.3% think that strict implementation of
anti-tobacco laws will reduce the smoking rate in public place.
Conclusions: We found that the police was associated with an
inhibition of secondhand tobacco smoking exposure in public places. However,
the impact was limited.
Our study suggests
that effective smoking control program designed specifically for police need to
be taken to utilize the effective role of police for smoking control in public
place.
CITATIONS(1):
1.
Compliance with smoke-free legislation in public places: An observational study in a northeast city of Bangladesh Saifur Chowdhury, Tachlima Sunna, Dipak Das, Mahfuzur Chowdhury, H. Mahmud, Ahmed Hossain, Hailegebireal Habte PLOS ONE
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