Background
Towards the tobacco control sector’s vision of a tobacco free New Zealand/Tupeka Kore Aotearoa, it is important to understand the level of public concern about tobacco as a health and social issue. In the Health Sponsorship Council’s (HSC’s) 2008 Health and Lifestyles Survey (HLS), respondents were asked a series of questions to measure their concern about tobacco.
Methodology
All respondents were asked for their levels of agreement (‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’ ‘neither agree nor disagree’, ‘disagree’, or ‘strongly disagree’) with a series of statements measuring their concern about tobacco. The statements were:
- Smoking is not really an important health issue anymore.
- Society disapproves of smoking.
- Smoking is a real problem in New Zealand.
Mean (average) agreement scores were calculated to compare responses by:
- Smoking status (current smokers: those who smoked at least monthly, and past smokers: those who had ever smoked but did not smoke at the time of the survey, compared with never smokers).
- Ethnicity (Maori, compared with non-Maori).
- Neighbourhood deprivation status (NZDep • 8-10 and NZDep 4-7, compared with NZDep 1-3).
- Age (25 to 34 years, 35 to 54 years, and 55 + • years, compared with 15 to 24 years).
- Gender.
- Educational background (no formal qualifications, School Certificate/NCEA level 1, and UE/NCEA levels 2-3/trade certificates, compared with university qualifications).
Statistically significant differences (p > .05) are reported.
Key Results
The majority of respondents indicated that they were concerned about smoking as a social and health issue.
- The majority of people indicated that they still thought smoking was an important health issue. Nine in 10 (89%) respondents disagreed that smoking is not really an important health issue anymore. Respondents who were more likely to disagree were current smokers, Pacific people, and those without university qualifications.
- Three in four respondents agreed that society disapproves of smoking. Respondents who were less likely to agree were Maori and Pacific people, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, younger people, and those without university qualifications.
- Three in four respondents agreed that smoking is a real problem in New Zealand. Respondents who were less likely to agree were current smokers and people who did not have formal qualifications.