Epidemiological survey on smoking and passive smoking situation among adults in Taizhou City,Zhejiang Province

Objective To describe the smoking and passive smoking status among adults in Taizhou City and provide baseline data for specialized tobacco control development.Methods A multi-staged cluster sampling survey was carried out in 9 districts from 2010 to 2011.Several indicators were analyzed such as smoking rate,age of smoke beginning,smoking amount per day,quit rate and passive smoking rate.Results The overall smoking rate was 23.6%(48.0% for males and 1.2% for females).There was statistically significant difference between males and females(χ2=683.60,P0.01).The average age of smoke beginning was(22.9±5.5)years old,and(20.4±12.8)cigarettes were consumed per day.Passive smoking rate in non-smokers was 40.2%(31.6% for males and 43.2% for females).The quit smoking rate was 21.8%(21.9% for males and 17.6% for females).53.9% smokers did not intend to quit smoking,while only 21.9% males and 17.6% females intended to quit smoking recently.Only 35.2% of respondents believed smoking was harmful to health seriously,and 29.5% of them believed passive smoking was harmful to health seriously.Conclusion Adult residents were exposed to tobacco seriously in Taizhou City.Both smoking rate and passive smoking rate were at a high level,and quit rate stayed low level.Tobacco control work faces huge challenges.