5th ENSP International Conference on...
New findings from the TackSHS Survey: Attitudes and perceptions
Silvano Gallus 1
Alessandra Lugo 1
Elisa Borroni 1
Esteve Fernandez 2
Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan, Italy
Catalan Institute of Oncology, L'Hopitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Tob. Prev. Cessation 2020;6(Supplement):A25
All European countries have adopted, to a different extent, smoke-free legislations to reduce cigarette consumption and to limit the exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) in public places.
To investigate attitudes and perceptions of smoke-free regulations among European adults.
Within the TackSHS Project, in 2017–2018, we conducted a face-to-face survey in 12 European countries: Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. In each country, we enrolled approximately 1000 participants, representative of the general country-specific population aged ≥15 years. All subjects were asked whether they were in favour or against a total smoking ban in 11 different indoor places (e.g. bars and restaurants, healthcare centres), five indoor modes of transport (including private vehicles in the presence of children), and nine outdoor settings (e.g. parks, stadiums, beaches, outdoor areas of schools and hospitals). Moreover, the perception of the usefulness of some strategies that governments could adopt to control and limit tobacco use, including raising prices or making smoking or cigarette sales illegal, and the perception of harmfulness of exposure to SHS was also investigated.
Among 11902 subjects interviewed, 25.9% were current smokers (31.0% in men and 21.2% in women, ranging between 18.9% in Italy and 37.0% in Bulgaria). Overall, 30.9% of non-smokers reported exposure to SHS in indoor settings (33.2% among men and 29.0% among women, ranging between 24.2% in Ireland and 67.7% in Greece). We will provide original findings on the attitudes and perceptions of Europeans towards smoke-free regulations and SHS exposure.
The results of this study will provide an overview of the support of both current and non-smokers towards the strengthening of smoke-free legislation in Europe. These data will have a large impact from a public health perspective, and could be used by national political decision-makers to plan future strategies to extend smoke-free regulations.