Abstract
Objectives: In Japan, about 20% of people are current smokers. There are more current smokers in their 30s and 40s. We investigated smokers’ interest to quit smoking, their attention to passive smoking, and non-smokers who have antipathy to passive smoking at the workplace.
Methods: The subjects were 815 workers from two manufacturing workplaces. We asked age, gender, workplace, smoking habits, and health consciousness toward smoking. In addition, for current smokers, we asked the number of cigarettes smoked per day, interest to quit smoking, attention to passive smoking, knowledge about the influence to the health of passive smoking, and reasons to quit or reduce smoking. For non-smokers, we asked whether or not they have antipathy to cigarette smoke. The χ2 test or Fisher’s exact test was performed to evaluate the relation between smokers’ desire to quit and age, gender, workplace (A or B), health consciousness, number of cigarettes (<21 or ≥21) and knowledge about passive smoking. Frequency analyses were also performed between smokers’ attention and the same variables.
Results: A total of 44.3% of the workers were current smokers. And 48.5% of them didn’t have any desire to quit. More workers at workplace (B), workers who smoke more than 21 cigarettes, or who have low health consciousness, didn’t want to quit. The reasons to quit or reduce smoking were the detrimental influence to their health, cost, and the increase in smoke-free areas. Smokers who didn’t pay attention to non-smokers were 40.7%. Many of them didn’t know about passive smoking. Non-smokers who have antipathy to smoke were 91.4%.
Conclusions: The information about the influence to the health would make smokers want to quit. In addition, the cost benefits and increasing smoke-free areas would help smokers quit. More information about passive smoking would make smokers pay more attention to non-smokers.
