1. Tobacco use and E-cigarette regulation: Perspectives of University Students in the Asia-Pacific.
- Author
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Wipfli H, Bhuiyan MR, Qin X, Gainullina Y, Palaganas E, Jimba M, Saito J, Ernstrom K, Raman R, and Withers M
- Subjects
- Asia, Humans, Students, Tobacco Use, Universities, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Tobacco Products
- Abstract
Introduction: The Asia-Pacific is home to 30% of the world's smokers. Additional efforts are needed to reduce negative health impacts of tobacco, including e-cigarettes. The study objectives were to 1. Investigate Asian-Pacific students' knowledge, attitudes, and use of tobacco products; 2. Determine the level of student support for tobacco control policies; and 3. Examine differences in students' attitudes by the strength of national tobacco control policies based on implementation of WHO's MPOWER package, and e-cigarette regulation in their countries., Methods: A total of 1953 students from members of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities in 13 countries completed the online survey. We compared the results by the Fisher-Freeman-Halton test., Results: While about 83% of students had heard of e-cigarettes; only 14.1% had tried them. Students in countries with e-cigarette bans were the least likely to report having experimented with e-cigarettes (8.1%). While the vast majority of students (87.9%) reported having seen health campaigns targeting combustible cigarettes, far fewer (42.5%) had seen any health campaigns targeting e-cigarettes. About 80% of students supported smoke-free campuses, with the most support coming from those in countries with the weakest adoption of MPOWER policies (88.7%) and no e-cigarette regulations (80.4%). Students in countries with the weakest MPOWER policies were also the most likely to support campus bans and government regulation of e-cigarettes., Conclusions: The adoption of tobacco control polices by government may have an impact on e-cigarette smoking behavior among students, and student support for tobacco control, including noncombustible products, is high. Universities should take action by adopting comprehensive tobacco control measures that include e-cigarette regulations., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2020
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