Abstract:
Smoking may serve as gateway drug to other substance abuse such as alcohol, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. Furthermore, of all the risk factors of ill health, smoking is responsible for the second greatest burden of disease. An understanding of factors affecting smoking among youth is important in protecting them from smoking behaviour. This study, constituting the systematic review and meta-synthesis of literature, aimed to examine factors regarding social ecological model which protect Thai youth from smoking. A comprehensive search of literature in Google Scholar, Scopus and Science Direct was conducted and found 6,372 articles. Eighteen articles fulfilled the selection criteria and quality assessment. The context and findings of the eligible articles were extracted and summarised using social ecological model. The review found that factors in social /policy level, especially tobacco control law and taxation were effective in protecting youth from smoking, factors in the individual level including having a role model (parents, family members, teachers and famous persons) were also the protective factors. In Thailand, there has been policies and implementation which target smoking among youth. However, there was a lack of connections in each level. In addition, intervention in the community level has not corresponded to the factors found in this review. It is recommended that effective youth tobacco control should consider and develop a connection of the complex interplay among various levels.
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