Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke among tertiary institution students of APA Local Government Area of Benue State Nigeria: A menace to future dilemma of Cigarette Complications

Abstract

Background:!!Nigeria!is!one!of!the!top!ten!countries!in!low!and!middle!income! countries!where!young!adults!are!more!exposed!to!secondhand!smoke!but!the! tobacco! control! policy! is! inadequate.! This! study! assessed! the! prevalence! and! the!correlates!of!secondhand!smoke!among!young!educated!elites!of!APA!local! government! area! of! Benue! State,! Nigeria.! Materials! and! Methods:! A! crossR sectional!study!was!carried!out!during!the!youth!annual!week!programme!with! the! team! entitled! "ingredients! of! a! successful! career! "from! 4th! R8th! January! 2014.!Inclusion!was!strictly!based!on!the!membership!of!the!local!government! council!elite!youth!association.!Structured!selfRadministered!questionnaire!was! employed.! Information! obtained! includes:! SocioRdemographic! information;! cigarrete!smoking!and!pattern!of!exposure!to!tobacco!smoke!in!the!previous!30! days! before! the! survey.! Data! was! analyzed! using! SPSS! version! 20.0.! Multiple! logistic!regressions!were!performed!to!test!relationship!between!the!predictor! variables! and! the! outcome! variable! (secondhand! smoke),! by! controlling! for! possible! cofounders.! Results:! The! mean! age! of! the! educated! elites! was! 25.8years!(SD=±5.8!years),!84(20.7%)!had!history!of!smoking!in!the!past,!while! 55! (13.6%)! are! currently! smoking.! FortyR! three! percent! of! respondents! were! aware!of!the!harmful!effects!of!SHS!on!their!health.!Overall,!49.0%!of!them!were! ! Copyright)©)Society)for)Science)and)Education,)United)Kingdom! 31! ! Archives)of)Business)Research)(ABR)) Vol.3,)Issue)4,)August<2015) exposed! to! SHS! at! Bars/restaurants,! 25.2%)! %! in! football! viewing! centre,! and! 11.5%!in!the!home.!!Marital!status,!religion,!and!respondents!past!and!current! smoking! status! were! among! the! significant! determinates,! whereas,! parental! and! close! friends! smoking! status! were! not! significant! (p=0.118! and! p=0.236! respectively).! Conclusion:! Our! results! show! that! prevalence! of! SHS! exposure! was!highest!in!public!places.!These!findings!underscore!the!need!for!enactment! of! comprehensive! smokeRfree! legislation! and! implementation! of! educational! strategies!to!reduce!SHS!exposure!in!homes.!