Abstract:
This study aimed 1) to examine stakeholders’ opinion, attitude, and awareness on smoke-free policy and 2) to investigate level of compliance to the smoke-free law. Cross sectional descriptive design was used with a combination of survey and indepth interview. Two subdistricts, Muang Kao and Sukhothai Thani, were selected purposively. A total of one thousand seven hundred and twenty five of SukhoThai residents and tourists were recruited in the survey and fifteen health and non health personnel working in tobacco control were asked to give an in-depth interview. Several tools were used including structured interviews, questionnaires, observational checklists, and guidelines for in-depth interview. The main analysis was descriptive in nature such as percentage, standard deviation, quartile, etc. Qualitative methods were used to analyse in-depth interviews using the 5P guidelines used by the World Health Organization as a framework. According to the National Statistics Office (NSO) report in 2007, there are 93,710 (19.18%) current smokers in SukhoThai province. The results of this study showed that over 80% of Sukhothai residents knew about smoke-free laws in public places. And 73.0-86.7% of smokers reported that they wouldn’t light up a cigarette if they saw the no smoking sign posted in the premises. However, violations of the smoke-free law still occurred as a result of low levels of enforcement and few public places posting a no smoking sign as required by law. Sukhothai province is a tourist destination with a large number of visitors per year. Only 61.4% of international visitors questioned were aware of the smoke-free policy in SukhoThai. Most supported smoke free policy in public places such as hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions. For business owners, most agreed with the smoke free policy, but few (20-40%) had established a 100% smoke free facility. Hospitality sectors, especially hotels and guesthouses, were afraid of losing foreign customers if they adopted 100% smoke free indoor public places policy. In addition, unlike health related sectors, non-health sectors a thought to be involved in supporting tobacco control policy and implementation were found to have no specific policy on tobacco control. A real network was not yet established in the province since most organizations networked with the provincial health department but never formed any partnership with other groups. Policy recommendations include 1) posting more signs both at the entrance and inside the premises and increase level of enforcement, 2) raising awareness among tourists, especially at the port of entry and hospitality sectors, 3) building understanding and networking with business owners, and collecting evidence that smoke free the policy has no impact on overall business performance. 4) allocating necessary resources such as signs, pamphlets, posters to large premises in the province to gain awareness, and 5) establishing a true network among health and non health sectors. Smoke free policy implementation at the provincial level will be more successful if these organizations can work together. This the task of forming partnerships among the organization is very important to the success of the policy.
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