Factors Predicting Smoking Behavior of Vocational Students and Undergraduate Students: A Study from Mahasarakham Province

Abstract

The purposes of this cross-sectional survey study were: 1) to study the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward the law of tobacco control and smoking behavior, and 2) to study the factors affecting smoking behavior in vocational and undergraduate students in Mahasarakham province. The 806 vocational and undergraduate students were collected from five different educational institutions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, as well as the binary logistic regression analysis by the Enter method.

The majority of the samples (76.8%) were female. The average age was 20.89 years (SD=0.92). Most of the students did not smoke (92.06%). In the case of smoking, the average age for first-time smoking was 13.42 years, with an average of 3.85 cigarettes per day. About half of the students (50.87%) had knowledge about tobacco control laws at a high level. Most (66.75%) of them had an attitude about tobacco control law at a very good level. However, more than two-thirds of the students (69.23%) complied with the tobacco control laws at a very low level. Four factors affected the smoking behavior of the students at the significant level of 0.05: sex, age, history of having a friend who smoked, and compliance with tobacco control law. The equation could explain the percentage of 35.80 of variance in smoking behavior.

Despite the fact that smoking behavior was at a low level, local governments and stakeholders should encourage and improve students’ knowledge in order to change their attitudes toward the tobacco control laws resulting in their smoking behavior change.