Policy-related Survey on Tobacco Control

Overview

Current study is the fourth wave of the policy-related survey on tobacco control in Hong Kong. It aims to investigate the level of public support on current and future tobacco control measures and taxation policies and to address the timely impacts of smoke-free policies, substantiate public support on further tobacco control measures and assist COSH in shaping policy direction for government. In total, 5000 subjects will be randomly selected for a telephone interview. The subjects will be categorized into three groups, i.e. never smokers (1667), ex-smokers (1667) and current smokers (1667). They will be required to answer a questionnaire via telephone. All data shall be collected using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) system, which allows real-time data capture and consolidation. All interviews shall be conducted anonymously. Analysis of survey data will aim to identify current opinion on tobacco control policies and implications for future policies. Analyses will be controlled for confounding variables as required by stratification into sub-groups based on important pre-defined characteristics and/or by multivariate analysis. Comparison with past trends and, where possible, extrapolation of future trends will be explored. Weights will be applied to adjust for the sex and age of Hong Kong population, and to handle the over-sampling issues of current smokers. The data analysis will be conducted by statisticians.

From 2013 to 2015, investigators conducted three waves of the policy-related survey on tobacco control. The surveys gathered information such as second hand smoking (SHS) exposure at home, in the workplace, and in various public places (e.g. bars/restaurants, door way of the buildings, streets, and bus stops), use of smoking cessation services, knowledge of smoking and quitting, and smoking prevalence; measured the impact of tobacco control policies such as tax increase in 2011 and 2014, expansion of smoke-free areas in 2009 and 2010, and pictorial health warnings on behavioral change of smokers and ex-smokers; collected the opinions on current policies such as smoke-free areas, pictorial health warnings and point of sale displays, and the opinions towards future policies such as tax increase, plain packaging, and tobacco endgame. The results of the three waves have been used by the Hong Kong Council On Smoking and Health (COSH) to advocate plain packaging, banning on point of sale displays, and increasing tobacco tax by 100% in the past 3 years. In order to collect further information on issues related to tobacco control which should be addressed in future tobacco control measures in Hong Kong, COSH commissioned School of Public Health, HKU to conduct a fourth wave of the survey (2015/16). The current survey sought to use the Hong Kong data to update information on the prevalence of SHS and active smoking and its health effects, use of E-cigarettes, awareness of smoking cessation services and to identify the level of public support for current and future tobacco control measures as well as estimating the impact of existing policies.