Abstract:
This research aimed to study the tobacco use situation among migrant workers in sugarcane fields in Tha Chai subdistrict. Si Satchanalai district. Sukhothai province, especially their knowledge, attitudes and channels for receiving information about the danger of tobacco, risks of secondhand smoke and smoke-free areas: channels of receiving information about tobacco advertisements; smoking cessation and access to services for smoking cessation, and to compare the benefits received from the tobacco control policy when temporarily migrating to work in sugarcane fields against those received at home. The study was conducted on 240 workers selected with the stratified cluster sampling technique. Data were collected from interviews with respondents and focus group discussions. Of all the respondents, 71.25% were from the Northeast, 59.58% were males and 40.52% were females; their mean age was 36 years and average income was 3,534 baht per month; 73.75% completed primary school and 78.33% were married; 40.83% were smokers (95.92% among males and 4.08% among females); the lowest age at first smoking was 8 years. Among the smokers, 87.76% used self-rolled cigarettes and 12.244% used both factory-produced and self-rolled cigarettes. The cigarettes most favorite were cat brand(50.01%): 58.16% of smokers had no criteria for selecting cigarettes. 32.65% selected based on the taste; 81.65% brought from village shops; 95.92% smoked every day, on average of 6 to 10 cigarettes per day. Spending on tobacco was on average 5 baht per day with no feeling about its burden. A majority (75.51%) did not plan to quit smoking. In comparison with smoking at home, 50% smoked the same number of cigarettes, while 23.47% smoked more: 63.27% spent the same amount of money on tobacco and 23.47% spent more. Regarding the number of smoke-free areas. 52.04% thought that the number was the same, while 14.29% thought that it had increased. The respondents had a good knowledge about risks of tobacco, mostly from TV. At one (8.33%) of all the camps, there was a message "No Smoking" written with charcoal on a toilet door. Among them, 78.75% received secondhand smoke in the camp and 72.08% received outside the camp every day. Compared with the situation at home. 52.08% received more secondhand smoke and there were more new smokers as they said ''Noi, the young man, did not smoke last year, but he has been smoking since he got home after the last sugarcane cutting season".
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