Knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to smoking among Burkinabé people residents of Dakar (Senegal) on World No Tobacco Day 2020

Abstract

Introduction: The study focused on knowledge attitudes and practices vis-à-vis smoking. It was carried out by the 2020 executive office of the Collective of Burkinabé Students in Health in Senegal on World No Tobacco Day 2020. The objective was initially to assess attitudes and practices in relation to smoking smoked by industrial cigarettes and shisha then knowledge of the anti-smoking law and the possibilities of weaning that exist in Senegal and finally to know the best attitude to fight against smoking.
 Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study for analytical purposes. The sampling technique was voluntary and data collection was self-administered and took place from Monday May 25th to Saturday May 30th, 2020 via electronic questionnaires.
 The self-administered data collection technique reduced prevarication and social desirability bias. However, the lack of preliminary calculation of a sample size makes inferences in the general population difficult. The sampling technique that was voluntary exposes itself to self-selection biases. Nevertheless, the study does suggest some very important aspects of smoking among young people.
 Results: This study shows that shisha is increasingly becoming the gateway to smoking among young people. It reveals that the health warnings on industrial cigarette packages are less and less dissuasive. It also shows that our study population believes that the two priority actions to be carried out to fight effectively against smoking in Senegal are on the one hand "to improve the offer of help for smoking cessation" and on the other hand " rigorously apply the punitive aspects of the anti-smoking law”.
 Conclusion: Smoking is a global epidemic that increasingly affects young people. Tobacco control is multidimensional and requires perfect synchronization of the different actors and continuous assessment of the effectiveness of control and prevention methods.
 Keywords: Cigarette, Shisha, Youth, Anti-tobacco control, Senegal