PATTERNS OF SMOKING AND HEALTH RISK PERCEPTION OF OUT-OF-SCHOOL YOUTHS IN SELECTED MOTOR PARKS IN OSHODI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The impact of smoking and tobacco use on health cannot be over emphasized. Cigarette smoking remains a gigantic public health problem and is still regarded as one of the leading preventable causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Over the past four decades, tobacco use has caused an estimated 12 million deaths in the world, including 4.1 million deaths from cancer, 5.5 million deaths from cardiovascular diseases, 2.1 million deaths from respiratory diseases and 94,000 infant deaths related to mothers smoking during pregnancy and on average cigarette smokers lose about 15 years of their life. It has been found that, knowledge about the health hazards of smoking has not always helped to prevent people from smoking. The objective of this study is to assess the pattern of smoking among out-of-school youth and their health risk perception.
This research was a cross-sectional survey which was carried out among 137 out-of-school youth in selected motor parks in Oshodi Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria. A semi-structured instrument (questionnaire) was used for data collection. Data collected were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21 with levels of significance set at 0.05.
The findings of this study revealed that mean age of respondents was 25.80 ± 8.585 ranging between the ages of 23-38years. Findings showed that there were more male respondents (88.3%) than there were female respondents (2.2%), indicating that majority of out-of-school youth at the motor parks are male. Prevalence of smoking among respondents was average at 56.2%. It was revealed that the rate of smoking was highest among respondents who initiated smoking at age 25 years old (13.94 ± 4.28) at 69.7%. It was also found that respondents’ perceived susceptibility to effect of smoking on health was very low at 15 point rating scale (4.57 ± 2.38). Also findings shows that respondents’ perceived severity/seriousness of the effect of smoking on health was very low at 15 point rating scale (5.18 ± 2.50) and that respondents’ perceived benefit of quitting smoking was below average at 15 point rating scale (6.11 ± 3.06). Findings revealed that there was significant difference in the level of smoking prevalence across the age of respondents (df = 16; F = 6.448; P < 0.05). Result showed that there is a significant association between prevalence of smoking and health risk perception of respondents (df = 3; r = 0.432; P < 0.05) and that there is no significant association between prevalence of smoking and health risk knowledge of respondents (df = 1; r = 0.089; P = 0.301).
This study concluded that out-of-school youths’ low health risk perception increased their smoking rate. The findings of this study suggest implementation of educational intervention towards improving out-of-school youths’ health risk perception of smoking.
Keywords: Smoking, Out-of-School Youth, Prevalence, Perception of smokers, Knowledge of smokers