A survey of university students’ attitudes toward a establish of rules and regulations controlling smoking on campus

Abstract

Objective: In accordance with the amendment to the Health Promotion Act in July 2018, smoking has been banned, in principle, on a university campus since July 2019. Under certain conditions, however, outdoor smoking areas have been approved. The aim of this study was to survey student attitudes toward smoking on campus, including the perceived need for the university to establish its own rules and regulations controlling smoking.
Method: Participants in this study were second-year students enrolled at Nayoro City University in 2019. The survey was conducted via an anonymous, self-administrated and semi-structured questionnaire that included questions concerning attitudes toward smoking on campus.

Results and Discussion: Recovery rate was 90.1% and all respondents claimed to be non-smokers except two former-smokers. Seventy nine point one% of respondents agreed on the need for the university to set its own rules controlling smoking. Sixty seven point nine% of them also replied that these rules should ban smoking on the streets next to the campus. These replies might be due to the low prevalence of smoking among respondents. By contrast, 62.2% of respondents gave their approval for creating outdoor smoking areas. This might be related to second-hand smoke exposure in their part-time work places.
Conclusion: The majority of students showed approval for the establishment of university-based rules and regulations controlling smoking on the campus.