Factors Related to E-Cigarette Smoking among Senior High School Students in Bangkok Metropolitan Area

Abstract

This survey research was aimed to study the relationship between personal factors, predisposal factors, enabling factors, reinforcing factors, cigarette smoking behavior and e-cigarette behavior of senior high school students, Bangkok Metropolis. The samples were 359 senior high school students aged 17-19 years, enrolling in academic year 2562. Data collection was done by using a set of questionnaire developed by the researcher. The reliability value of the part on “Knowledge about e-cigarette, “calculated by employing Kuder-Richardson 20, was 0.762 and of the parts on “Perceived severity of e-cigarette smoking”,”Perceived benefits of e-cigarette smoking” and “Attitudes towards e-cigarette”, calculated by employing Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient, were ranged between 0.825-0.862. Data analysis was done by calculating the following statistics: frequency, percentage, mean, standard derivation, Chi-square test, Continuity Correction Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact Test.

The research result showed that 49.4 % of the sampled students had a low level of knowledge about e-cigarette, 58.7 % had a high level of perceived severity of e-cigarette smoking, 45 % had a low level of perceived benefits of e-cigarette smoking, and 66.6 % had negative attitudes toward e-cigarette. The association analysis showed significant correlation students’ e-cigarette smoking and the following factors: gender, students’ grades, perceived severity of e-cigarette smoking, perceived benefit of e-cigarette smoking, attitudes toward e-cigarette, access to e-cigarette selling supporting programs, close friends’ e-cigarette smoking behavior, dialogues with friends, the content of dialogues, friends’ persuasion, and learning-teaching about e-cigarette at schools.

Recommendations for this study include using other effective learning development model at school rather than lecture in order to increase memory rate, that the government should have taken strict measures to control the channel for promoting e-cigarette sale by cigarette companies that reach school students, and the quasi-experimental research aiming to control e-cigarette smoking among senior secondary school students should be done.