Perceptions of students, lecturers and staffs on establishing a smoke-free campus

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the perception of students, lecturers and staffs on smoke-free campus policy. Method: Samples, including 880 students, 102 lecturers and 209 staff, were taken from all faculties in Universitas Riau using convenience sampling technique. A survey was conducted for these respondents through the distribution of questionnaires. Information pertaining to demographics, smoking and non-smoking behaviors and experiences, and perceptions regarding smoke-free campus policy was obtained. Results: It was discovered that 58% of survey groups and respondents were females, 84.3% were non-smokers, and 66.1% reported exposure to cigarette smoke in university campus every day or several days in a week. All groups reported that they were affected by cigarette smoking with no significant difference in the proportion (p=.540). The rate of students and lecturers were similar in terms of their agreements on smoking prohibition in campus environment (81.7% and 84.3% respectively), while it was different with staff (p=.004). Further ANOVA analysis revealed that there was a significant difference between groups regarding agreements on smoking prohibition (p=.007) such that staff differed from lecturers and students (p=.014 and p=.028), while lecturers and students showed no significant difference (p=.502). All groups strongly agreed on establishing a smoke-free campus (81.9% of students, 85.3% of lecturers, 77.7% of staffs) with no significant difference in their proportion (p=.079). Conclusions: Interventions can be introduced to enhance support gotten from the staff group, however, majority of the students, lecturers and staffs were very supportive of creating a smoke-free campus. Therefore, there is a call to action for university leaders and decision makers to implement the policy. (C) 2019 Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.