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Enkhtuya Palam
National center for Public Health, Mongolia
Keynote: Curr Res Integr Med
Background & Aim: Cigarette use in the Western Pacific Region among school aged children is a growing public health concern. Surveillance of the prevalence of cigarette smoking among the youth in this region is the first step in a long process of implementing policy change and public health interventions to combat the widespread tobacco epidemic in this region. In addition to estimating the prevalence and determinants of cigarette use (in packs and singles) within a national sample of school aged children in Mongolia, this study determined how a child�s pocket money, familial and social contextual factors, and access to cigarette vendors influenced his/her smoking status. Methods: The 2014 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, a stratified multi-stage cluster design survey, was utilized to predict prevalence and determinants of cigarette use. Analysis was conducted using SAS-callable software SUDAAN to account for the design effect and increased homogeneity of within cluster groups. Prevalence and determinants of single cigarette use among current smokers was also estimated using the same variance estimation methods. Results: Cigarette use among school children was most evident in those children who were older, male, urban dwelling, with parents or friends who smoke. Cigarette use was almost two times more prevalent in urban than rural school children and, among urban school children who smoked, more than half purchased a single cigarette, an illicit product in Mongolia. Pocket money strongly influenced the purchase of cigarettes and single cigarettes. A child�s choice to smoke cigarettes was associated with the sale of cigarettes (pack or single cigarette) near their school. Conclusion: The findings of this study provide evidence and information for the Mongolia Ministry of Health to use in future tobacco related policy change. Strong correlations between our variables of interest and cigarette use indicate that the WHO FCTC need to focus on further increasing the price of cigarettes and also enforce restriction of the sale of legal and illegal (packs and single cigarettes) cigarettes to minors.
Enkhtuya Palam is the Lead Researcher of the National Center for Public Health Mongolia. She is a Pediatrician, completed her degree in Public Health Sciences at the Medical University of Irkutsk, Russia in the year 2003 and Postgraduate Internship at Seoul National University in Korea. She is a Lead Researcher of the National Center for Public Health from 1997 to till date. Her research activity includes the NCD KAP survey since 2010 and 2012 and also National STEPS survey on prevalence of risk factors in 2005, 2009 and 2013.
E-mail: p_enkhee2001@yahoo.com
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