The perception towards national anti-smoking initiatives among Malay male smokers

Background: Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), Malaysia 2011 reported that the prevalence of smoking was highest among Malays male i.e., 24.6% (CI:22.1,27.3). The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of a group of smokers towards various national anti-smoking initiatives as well as its association with age and education level. Methods: The study was conducted in a randomly selected pre-dominantly Malay settlement in Malaysia using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The national anti-smoking initiatives assessed were ‘anti-smoking campaign’, ‘labelling on cigarette pack’, ‘increment of cigarette price’, ‘smoke free zone policies’ and ‘Quit smoking clinic’ initiatives. Results: A total of 136 Malay male smokers participated in this study. The percentage of respondents agreeing with the questions asked were very low, ranging from only 5.9% to 24.3%, except for one i.e., 99.3% agreed that the information on cigarette packs can be trusted. Assessing the success of various types of national anti-smoking initiatives in helping smokers to quit, the percentage of those who agreed ranged between 17.6% - 24.3% and in helping to reduce numbers of cigarette smoked, the range was from 12.5% to 18.4%. There was a significant association between ‘increment of cigarette price’ initiative with level of education (P=0.02). Conclusion: The percentage of positive perceptions towards all anti-smoking efforts was low and perception towards ‘increment of cigarette price’ was associated with level of education.

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