The perception towards national anti-smoking initiatives among Malay male smokers

Background: global adult tobacco survey (gats),malaysia 2011 reported that the prevalence of smoking was highest among malays male i.e.,24.6% (ci:22.1,27.3). the aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of a group of smokers towards various national anti-smoking initiatives as well as its association with age and education level.methods: the study was conducted in a randomly selected pre-dominantly malay settlement in malaysia using a validated self-administered questionnaire. the national anti-smoking initiatives assessed were ‘anti-smoking campaign’,‘labelling on cigarette pack’,‘increment of cigarette price’,‘smoke free zone policies’ and ‘quit smoking clinic’ initiatives.results: a total of 136 malay male smokers participated in this study. the percentage of respondents agreeing with the questions asked were very low,ranging from only 5.9% to 24.3%,except for one i.e.,99.3% agreed that the information on cigarette packs can be trusted. assessing the success of various types of national anti-smoking initiatives in helping smokers to quit,the percentage of those who agreed ranged between 17.6%-24.3% and in helping to reduce numbers of cigarette smoked,the range was from 12.5% to 18.4%. there was a significant association between ‘increment of cigarette price’ initiative with level of education (p=0.02).conclusion: the percentage of positive perceptions towards all anti-smoking efforts was low and perception towards ‘increment of cigarette price’ was associated with level of education. © 2014,iranian journal of public health. all rights reserved.