Association between Personal Factors, Beliefs, and Attitudes towards E-cigarettes and Cigarettes Use among Thai Youths in Central Region, Bangkok and its Perimeter
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Abstract
This descriptive research aimed to study the association between personal factors, beliefs and attitudes towards electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) and cigarettes use among Thai youths in high school and vocational school. The samples were 3,830 youths aged 15 - 24 years in academic year 2021 and live in central region, Bangkok and its perimeter. Data were collected by using online questionnaires, via Google Forms application. Data were analyzed using statistics including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Chi-square test and the crude odds ratio (OR) by multinomial logistic regression at 95% confidence level. The results of this study showed that the Thai youths had 4.1% prevalence of using e-cigs and 4.6% of using cigarettes. Males smoked both e-cigs and cigarettes more than females. The age range at which youths started smoking was 15 - 17 years. Vocational students in the Central Region used cigarettes the most (25.7%), while vocational students in Bangkok metropolitan used e-cigs the most (23.1%). Youths of private institutions used e-cigs more than government institutions whereas youths of government institutions used cigarettes more than private institutions. Youths living in dormitory of the institute used e-cigs the most (10.9%). When investigating the association between personal factors and smoking behavior, it was found that gender, age, education type, type of institutions, regions and current residences were associated with youths smoking behavior at statistical level of .001. The association between personal factors, beliefs and attitudes towards e-cigs and cigarettes use compared to those who never used or quit smoking more than 1 year as a reference group, it was found that males in the central region were 4 times more likely to use e-cigs and 5 times more likely to use cigarettes (OR 4.43, 95% CI 2.26, 8.68, p < .001; OR 5.46, CI 3.21, 9.32, p < .001, respectively). Vocational students in central regions had 3 times higher chance of using e-cigs and almost 8 times higher chance of using cigarettes (OR 3.42, 95% CI 1.81, 6.45, p < .001; OR 7.97, 95% CI 4.31, 14.71, p < .001, respectively). The youths in Bangkok living in institutional dormitories had up to 4 times greater chance of using e-cigs. (OR 4.54, 95% CI 1.28, 16.09, p < .05). It was found that youths who had positive beliefs and attitudes towards e-cigs were more likely to use both e-cigs and cigarettes than youths who had negative beliefs and attitudes.
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