Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on cigarette smoking among adult Myanmar migrant workers: a case study in Ratchaburi province, Thailand

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was carried out in Bann Leuk and Nongree Sub-district, Ratchhaburi Province, Thailand in March, 2011. The main purposes of this study were to identify the prevalence of smoking and to identify the association between demographic characteristics, level of knowledge, level of attitudes and practices of smoking of adult Myanmar migrant workers aged between 18 to 59 years who lived in Ratchaburi province, Thailand. This study was conducted with 385 samples by using a structured interview questionnaire to gather the data with the ethical view protocol from Chulalongkorn University. For data analysis, Statistical Package of Social Science software SPSS version 16 (licensed for Chulalongkorn University) was used. Chi-square test was used to describe the relationship between independent variables and cigarette smoking behavior. The results showed that the overall prevalence of cigarette smoking was 40% with the prevalence of males was 55.3% and of females was 9.4%. Seventy two point seven percent of smokers started smoking under the age of 18 years. 68.2% of smokers smoked 3 to 5 cigarettes per day and 44.8% of smokers smoked according to being loneliness when 40.3% smoked because of stress. Among respondents, 39.7% had high level of knowledge while 30.4% had moderate level of knowledge. For attitude toward smoking, 59% of respondents had high level of attitude and 37.4% had moderate level of attitude. Smoking behavior was high significant difference with age (<0.001), gender (<0.001) and duration of staying in Thailand (<0.001). There was an association between knowledge of smoking and cigarette smoking behavior (<0.001) while there was also statistical different between attitude towards smoking and cigarette smoking behavior (<0.001).This study was done with the expectation that the information obtained from this study can be used as a baseline data for further studies. Interventions are needed to be considered for behavioral change and to conduct prevention and control measures of smoking among adult Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand.