Abstract:

Objective To investigate and analyse the prevalence of smoking and tobacco control environment among middle school personnel in Shanghai. Methods Stratified cluster random sampling method was adopted, and 2 696 personnel were selected from 38 middle schools (28 junior middle schools, 7 senior high schools and 3 vocational schools) in 4 districts of Shanghai. On-the-spot questionnaire survey was conducted, which was concerned with smoking condition, knowledge and attitude, tobacco control training and tobacco control environment in schools, and the survey findings were statistically analysed. Results The prevalence of smoking among school personnel was 13.2%. The prevalence of smoking in males was significantly higher than that in females (35.9% vs 1.6%, P<0.001). The prevalence of smoking increased with age, and the prevalence of smoking in males aged more than 40 was significantly higher than that in males aged less than 40 (P<0.001). For males, the prevalence of smoking in teachers (30.2%) was significantly lower than those in administrative staff (45.6%) and staff on other positions (50.0%)(P<0.001). Only 64.1% of respondents were aware of the harm of smoking such as addiction, lung cancer and cardiac diseases, and the percent of smokers was significantly lower than that of non-smokers (43.1% vs 67.3%, P<0.001). Only 54.5% of respondents believed that smoking ban was thoroughly implemented in their schools, and the smoking rate in schools with strict smoking ban was significantly lower than that in schools without strict smoking ban (9.8% vs 14.0%, P<0.05). About 41.7% of smokers reported that they had smoked in schools in the past year. Conclusion The smoking rate among middle school personnel in Shanghai is lower than that of adult population in China. Promotion should be implemented among school personnel to increase their awareness of harm of smoking and to improve their tobacco control skills, especially for males aged more than 40 and administrative staff.

Key words: school personnel, smoking, tobacco control environment, middle school