Abstract:
The study aims to evaluate the level of knowledge, attitude and awareness of teachers, including assess factors associated with their awareness on the problem of e-cigarette smoking among youth in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. The researcher randomized the 5 representative school groups by sampling without replacement. There are 344 teachers were then selected by sampling without replacement from the list registered and determined according to the inclusion criteria. Results found that 71.22% were female with an average age of 39.79 years (SD=9.86). The 60.53% graduated with a bachelor's degree, 47.52% were married and lived together, 31.56% were a professional teacher. Average income was 34,480.10 baht (SD=16,297.12), with a median of their working life was 10 years (Mean=13.75±10.24). There are 7.94% of samples who used to smoke and drink alcohol, 77.06% had no underlying disease. The 61.22% had seen or heard an e-cigarette advertisement through Facebook (66.19%), had heard an e-cigarette sale on the internet (47.81%), had heard the dangers of e-cigarettes (77.03%) through TV 53.01%, followed by Facebook 50.75%. When considering only those who had ever smoked e-cigarettes of 23 people (6.71%), it was found that they started smoking for the first time at the lowest age of 10 years (Mean=24.33±9.68) due to curiosity or wanting to try 75.00%. Among 38.10% of this group acquired e-cigarettes by requesting or borrowing from others, followed by receiving from friends or colleagues 28.57%. More than half the sample (63.45%) had ever seen youth smoke e-cigarettes in the last three months, especially toilets found the highest at 67.57%. However, most of schools (90.41%) had also a policy to protect youth from e-cigarette, and most of samples (73.84%) had ever participated in e-cigarette prevention activities among youth. Almost half of samples (42.73%) had low level of e-cigarette knowledge, 78.78% had a bad attitude towards e-cigarettes, and 63.95% had a good awareness towards the problem of e-cigarettes among youth. Analysis by using binary logistic regression statistic by controlling for the influence of various factors, found that four factors associated with awareness of teachers on the problem of e-cigarettes smoking among youth in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Teachers with incomes of 35,001 baht or more tend to be more aware of the problem of e-cigarettes among youth than those with incomes between 10,000 and 35,000 baht was 2.83 times (95% CI=1.53 to 5.23, p-value=0.001), and also teachers with low level of e-cigarette knowledge tend to be more aware of the problem of e-cigarettes among youth than those who had moderate to high level of e-cigarette knowledge was 2.06 times (95% CI=1.12 to 3.78, p-value=0.002). While the interesting of knowing an e-cigarette sales information on the internet (AOR=0.23, 95% CI=0.09 to 0.56, p-value= 0.001) including bad attitude towards e-cigarettes (AOR=0.29, 95% CI=0.13 to 0.63, p-value=0.002) are the factor enhancing teachers' awareness towards the problem of e-cigarettes among youth. Therefore, school administrators and related persons should raise teachers' awareness of the problem of e-cigarettes among youth by considering the above factors, in order that it may focus on teachers who earn incomes between 10,000 and 35,000 baht per month.
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