Table of Contents
Introduction
Methodology
Findings and Discussions
Ø Factors that affect’s a person’s tendency of smoking in nonsmoking areas
Ø Percentage of persons smoking in no-smoking areas in parks and playgrounds of LCSD (including the ratio of male : female)
Conclusion
Recommendation
Appendix
Bibliography
Questionnaire
Logs
Introduction
Smoking continues to be a problem among many individuals worldwide. An attempt to decrease availability to those less than 18 years of age resulted in a law that requires proof of age to purchase cigarettes. Cigarette smoking by women is also a growing health concern. However, enforcement is far from being met. In many public places, smoking is allowed and even minor aged individuals can smoke. The decision to smoke may be reflective of self-concept issues and may be culturally influenced. Awareness of risk factors is essential for implementation of preventive health care in a variety of health care settings.
A ban on smoking was put down in Hong Kong, only leaving a few designated areas for smoking. However, many observed that people still smoke in non-smoking areas.
In this project, we would concentrate on:
(1) The factors that push people to smoke in non-smoking areas and not in the designated smoking areas.
(2) To be able to determine the percentage of smokers smoking at no-smoking areas in parks and playgrounds of LCSD (including the ratio of male : female)
We hope that through this research, we may be able to shed light on the matter of people smoking in non-smoking areas and the reasons behind their adamant response to smoking ban.
Methodology
For this research study, the author will employ a combination of qualitative method and quantitative methods. This was so because our study needed an in-depth look at why smokers continue to smoke in non-designated areas despite the smoking ban. Also, we needed to use the quantitative method because the one of objectives of the study is to find out if the percentage of smokers in the non-smoking area and the smokers in designated areas, furthermore, we also need to determine the ratio between female and male smokers.
At a designated hour, the number of smokers in designated and non-designated areas will be counted. An informal semi-structured interview with focus group smokers in non-smoking areas will be conducted. Three public parks and playgrounds in Hong Kong under management of the LCSD, with designated smoking areas will be used as the main surveillance area for the research.
Findings and Discussions
Factors that affect’s a person’s tendency of smoking in nonsmoking areas
According to most of my interviewees, they smoke in restricted areas due to a number of reasons. One reason is that they smoke there because:
Ø Smoking areas are too crowded and noisy, making the experience of smoking there unpleasant. – Many of the smokers tend to smoke to be able to find a time of solitude. One respondent stated that he smokes in order to keep away from his nagging housewife for the time being. However, when he chooses to go to the park to smoke, he finds the smoking area too crowded. Therefore, he opts to smoke in the restricted area to be able to enjoy a moment of solitude.
Ø Smoking in the restricted area gives smokers a chance to think things over alone. – Again, this reason seems to be quite related to the first reason stated; however, I deemed this reason has to be separated from the first one due to the fact that this reason focuses greatly on the person’s reasons. A respondent stated that he smokes to be able to think things out. Everyday life for him was a parade of problems, so in order for him to be able to straighten things out, he goes to the park to smoke. But he says that he needs more peace and quiet than the designated area can offer so he opts to smoke in restricted areas.
Ø Restricted areas have been their smoking places even before the ban was drafted. – Many smokers have been smoking in the restricted sections of parks before the ban was put into place. These people have already found a niche in these areas. However, due to the ban, most of them were forced to abide to the rules and abandon these places. But many smokers still smoke in these areas despite the restriction. According to one, he is not comfortable smoking in any other area, so he opts to smoke in the restricted areas.
These reasons are the responses given out by the smokers from these areas. Most of the reasons why they smoke are personal and are often influenced by the environment. Due to the inconvenience that the ban has brought to them, many people are asking for the lift of the ban, stating that the ban will not be able to do any good to other people. They say that even if the government does implement a ban and keeps smokers in a restricted area, the fumes from their cigarettes will still reach others so they point out that the ban is truly pointless.
Percentage of persons smoking in no-smoking areas in parks and playgrounds of LCSD (including the ratio of male: female)
Total number of people who smoked in the park from the 1st to the 3rd logs:
1st log
2nd log
3rd log
total
Total
165
123
96
384
Male
93
87
74
254
Female
72
36
22
130
Total number of people who smoked in the restricted area:
1st log
2nd log
3rd log
Total
Total
165
123
96
384
Restricted area
39
0
24
63
Number of:
Females
6
0
15
21
Males
33
0
9
42
As can be seen on the graph, the total number of smokers clearly outweighs the total number of female smokers, both on the designated and restricted areas. In the total, the male gender comprises 66.15% of the total smokers, and the female smokers amount to only 33.85% of the total number of smokers. On the other hand, about 33.33% are female on the smokers who smoke in restricted areas, whereas 66.67% males comprise the total number of smokers.
Conclusion
Therefore, many factors can affect a person’s tendency to smoke, especially when restricted. These persons really need help, but there are other ways to help these people, especially if the government really wishes to help them. There is a counseling approach for emotion and cognition dependent smokers, broadly defined as that subset of smokers whose inability to stop smoking is determined by emotional and cognitive factors. Despite these people’s strong wish to stop smoking and multiple attempts to do so, their efforts are stymied by the emergence of distressful and painful feelings that they attempt to alleviate through smoking cigarettes. Severity, personal vulnerability, self-efficacy, and response efficacy enhance the persuasive effects of health warnings about smoking cessation by eliciting protection motivation, an intervening variable that arouses, sustains, and directs activity for self-protection within the individual. Strong beliefs about these variables can arouse protection motivation; consequently, these people will be more likely to change her attitudes and subsequently to stop smoking.
Recommendations
Smoking Cessation Programs
Success in response to public health education is more likely in professional and managerial persons and in those best able to intelligently appreciate the risks associated with smoking. Unfortunately, most smokers do not usually stop smoking until the onset of ill health. Withdrawal effects, possibly related to nicotine deprivation, include depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, and weight gain.
Hypnosis, aversion therapy, group therapy, and special smoking withdrawal clinics have helped individuals break their smoking habit, but the overall value of these aids is uncertain. Persons unable to stop cigarette smoking should be encouraged to change to a less dangerous method of smoking such as using pipes or cigars, or filter-tipped cigarettes with a low tar and nicotine content. The risk may be also reduced by smoking fewer cigarettes, inhaling less, leaving a longer stub, and taking fewer puffs/cigarettes (, 2005).
Motivated by health concerns, spurred on by social pressure, and aided by efficacious treatments, many smokers have managed to stop smoking. For a certain group of smokers, however, this outcome has been short-lived, as within months, weeks, or even days for some, a relapse to smoking occurs. Indeed, it has been documented that 1 year after a quit attempt, about 90% of would-be ex-smokers will have gone back to smoking ( & , 1999, ).
Various organizations have put up campaigns against smoking. Yet not all of them do work. Governments alone cannot set up a successful campaign against smoking. Thus we see many private organizations that also help in campaigns against smoking.
Susan’s case is just one of the many cases about individuals who wish to stop smoking yet aren’t able to. Their need to smoke may be attributed to factors related to the self. Susan will probably need professional help regarding her smoking problem and an understanding of self is needed for a successful treatment.
Psychotherapeutic Approach
Because women’s lives are more punctuated, sociobiologically speaking, than are men’s — by menarche and menopause, by the monthly cycle of ovulation and bleeding, by pregnancy and childbirth, and by the accompanying assaults of these life changes on body image — looking at women as a block may blur differences in women’s smoking cessation needs across the life cycle. The special needs of women at different life stages will require much more attention if smoking cessation programs are to be maximally helpful to women smokers. Nevertheless, sufficient research has been done in a few aspects of the female life cycle to offer at least some guidance to the clinician ( & , 1999, ).
In Susan’s case, she would need a psychotherapeutic approach to her smoking problem. A psychotherapeutic approach for smoking cessation uses cognitive, supportive, and expressive therapeutic techniques that are generally delivered in an active, directive therapeutic style ( & , 1999, ).
This approach will focus in an individual’s self-concept and views regarding smoking. Why people smoke and smokers’ views about smoking are issues that have attracted much attention within the last few years. Some researchers have focused on the role of peers and of parents. Other researchers have asked smokers to attribute their smoking to different reasons–for example, pleasure, relaxation, or weight control. These researchers have often been guided by attribution theory and, specifically, by the fundamental attribution error. When this theory has been applied to smokers, researchers have predicted that smokers would attribute their own smoking to external causes (e.g., peers, advertisements, pleasure), whereas nonsmokers would attribute people’s smoking to internal causes (, 1994). The therapy is change oriented, sequenced, and time limited.
The organizing principle of this therapeutic approach is the assumption that cigarette smoking is maintained by the (emotionally dependent) patient’s tendency to use cigarettes in the service of denying painful feelings. The consequence of this self-medicating tendency, which is sustained by the psychoactive nature of nicotine, is a learned and practiced inability to recognize feelings and to respond adaptively to the stressful, emotionally arousing events, large or small, of everyday life. The emotionally dependent smoker will often be emotionally unaware, constricted in emotional experience, and lacking in appropriate coping mechanisms ( & , 1999, ).
References
Appendix
Questionnaires
1.) How old are you? (Please tick)
17-23
24-34
35-45
46-59
over 60
3) Please state your gender. (Please tick)
Male Female
4) What do they feel about the smoking ban now implemented in Hong Kong? (Please tick)
Agree
1
Agree on some aspects
2
Undecided
3
Disagree on some aspects
4
Disagree
5
5) Please state the reason why you agree? (Please tick)
6) Did you smoke lately? (Please tick)
NO
1
Yes
2
7) How frequently do you smoke?
(Please tick)
not at all
1
Once every other day
2
Once a day
3
5 times a day
4
regularly
5
Smoke
8.) Where do you often smoke?
Non-smoking areas
1
Designated smoking areas
2
Please state the reason for your answer: _______________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Interview Questions
1. How often do you smoke?
2. What are your reasons for smoking?
3. Do you think that the smoking ban would actually lessen the smokers in Hong Kong?
4. Why do smoke in a non-smoking area?
5. What alternatives would you suggest for the implementation of the smoking
Field Logs on 22 February 2007
Duration: 1800 – 2400 hours
Location: (Please state the name of the designated park)
Time
Event
1800
Arrived the vicinity of ‘name of the park’
1830 – 1845
The first questionnaire was administered to a man in no-smoking area.
1850 – 1902
The 2nd questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
1906 – 1922
The 3rd questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
1926 – 1939
The 4th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
1945 -1956
The 5th questionnaire was conducted. (non-smoking area)
2000 -2028
The 6th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2036 -2052
The 7th questionnaire was conducted. (non-smoking area)
2059 – 2116
The 8th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2133 – 2148
The 9th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2154 -2206
The 10th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2210 – 2229
The 11th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2245 – 2257
The 12th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2311 – 2324
The 13th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2326 – 2346
The 14th questionnaire was conducted. (non-smoking area)
2347 – 2403
The 15th questionnaire was conducted. (non-smoking area)
2405
Left ‘name of the designated park’.
On the first designated night in conducting my field research, I chose (please insert the name of the designated park) to conduct my survey. In the course of my 6 hour operation, I have succeeded only in asking 15 smokers to answer my questionnaire and only a further 3 for the interview. But as I counted the smokers in the course of the 6 hours that I spent there, the total number of smokers totaled to about 165; 39 people smoking in the non-smoking area and about 126 in the smoking area. About 93 people were male and the remaining 72 were female. Though the above summary does not display the gender of the respondents, most of the respondents were male, only 4 were female.
As I was able to observe, female smokers often came in cliques, comprising of mostly female, sometimes with a few male companions. On the other hand, male smokers either came alone or in a pair, mostly a male companion. The result of the survey in my survey sheet as of the moment can be deemed indecisive, for only four respondents came from the non-smoking area, where as in actuality, there were around 39 people smoking in the non-smoking area in the course of the 6 hour operation, 6 of them female. This is due to the fact that many of the smokers form the non-smoking area refused to answer the questionnaire or be interviewed, for fear of being caught by officers and be condemned with the use of that information. In actuality, many of them put out their cigarette and left the area when I approached them about the survey.
The area I chose seems to be quite popular with smokers since it is quite near to offices and bus stops. Though it is too early to conclude, I believe that this may be one of the factors why many people come here to smoke.
Interview Analysis
For the interview, only 2 people were willing to give out their opinions on the matter of smoking. Almost all the answers from the two were unanimous, except for question one. The two people were interviewed with an interval of 4 hours and 30 minutes. The first smoker, who was interviewed at around 7:56 PM, stated that he smoked around 5 times a day. According to him, he smokes because he has a tendency to binge what he eats, so in order to stop that from happening, he lights a cigarette to stop the feeling of nausea after eating. For interviewee no. 2, who was interviewed at around 11:46 PM, stated that he smokes around 2 to 3 times a day, depending on his mood. He smokes mainly because he likes the feel of the cigarette in his mouth. For interviewee no. 1, the ban in Hong Kong is practically useless, since many people still smoke, and the areas designated for smoking does not contain the smoke coming from their cigarettes; for interviewee no. 2, the ban should be on the cigarettes, not the people who smoke. For both interviewee no. 1 and 2, they smoke in the non-smoking area simply because the smoking area is too crowded. According to interviewee no. 2, he likes to smoke alone, that’s why even if it’s a restricted area, he chooses to go there instead of the crowded smoking area. Both interviewees suggested that the government lift the ban on smoking. According to them, smoking can only be stopped if the smoker decides to stop, so even if there is a constant ban on smoking, smokers would continue to smoke and break the ban.
Though the first survey results does not give me hard evidence and answers, mere observation gives me a feel of why people smoke at non-designated areas.
Field Logs on 22 March 2007
Duration: 1800 – 2400 hours
Location: (please state the name of the park)
Time
Event
1802
Arrived at the vicinity of ‘name of the park’.
1815 – 1822
The 1st questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
1826 – 1839
The 2nd questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
1845
The 3rd. to the 6th questionnaires were handed out and completed. (smoking area)
~
~ (smoking area)
~
~ (smoking area)
~
~ (smoking area)
~
~ (smoking area)
1903
The 3rd. to the 6th questionnaires were handed out and completed. (smoking area)
1909 – 1926
The 7th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
1949 – 2003
The 8th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2004 – 2023
The 9th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2026 – 2044
The 10th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2048 – 2059
The 11th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2100 – 2116
The 12th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2120 – 2138
The 13th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2140 – 2200
The 14th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2210 – 2231
The 15th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2249 – 2306
The 16th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2310 – 2327
The 17th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2329 – 2341
The 19th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2345 – 2401
The 20th questionnaire was conducted. (smoking area)
2405
Left the designated area.
At my second night of operations, I chose a park that is quite secluded and relatively far from any office establishment in order for me to determine if people would really come to such a place just to be able to smoke. The park is relatively 2 blocks from any office establishment. The total number of smokers was about 123, 36 were female and 87 were male. Out of about 123 smokers that I was able to note during my 6 hour survey, only 20 people were willing to answer the questionnaire, 5 were female, and all of whom were smoking in the designated area. As is reflected in the results, all complied with the ban, no one smoked in the non-smoking area. One may conclude that the reason why no one is smoking in the non-smoking area is because the park is quite far from any establishments. And probably, all those who came there during my survey were willing to follow the rules.
Since none of them were smoking in the non-smoking area, I decided not to conduct any interviews.
But it is also interesting to note that after I had conducted my interviews, I decided to see the nearest establishments for any smokers there. Just as I had speculated, many were smoking at the closest establishments; on backstreets, on dark alleys and corners.
Field Log on 22 April 2007
Duration: 1800 – 2400 hours
Location: Please fill in with the designated area
Time
Event
1800
Please fill in the name designated area.
1810 – 1825
The 1st and 2nd questionnaires were given and completed.
1830 – 1845
The 3rd and 4th questionnaires were given and completed.
1850 – 1905
The 5th and the 6th questionnaires were given and completed.
1910 – 1925
The 7th and the 8th questionnaires were given and completed.
1930 – 1945
The 9th and the 10th questionnaires were given and completed.
1950 – 2005
The 11th and the 12th questionnaires were given and completed.
2010 – 2025
The 13th and the 14th questionnaires were given and completed.
2030 – 2045
The 15th and the 16th questionnaires were given and completed.
2050 – 2105
The 17th and the 18th questionnaires were given and completed.
2110 – 2125
The 19th and the 20th questionnaires were given and completed.
2130 – 2145
The 21st and the 22nd questionnaires were given and completed.
2150 – 2205
The 23rd and the 24th questionnaires were given and completed.
2210 – 2225
The 25th and the 26th questionnaires were given and completed.
2230 – 2245
The 27th and the 28th questionnaires were given and completed.
2250 – 2305
The 29th and the 30th questionnaires were given and completed.
2310 – 2325
The 31st and the 32nd questionnaires were given and completed.
2330 – 2345
The 33rd and 34th questionnaires were given and completed.
2350 – 2405
The 35th and the 36th questionnaires were given and completed.
2410
Left the venue.
This is my third and final survey night at the designated parks. In order to gain more respondents, I decided to change my strategy and my time table. I gave out to questionnaires to every 15 minutes and with 5 minute intervals. Therefore, in my 6 hour operation, I was able to have 36 respondents. I made sure that I would be able to interview a number of respondents from the non-smoking area, so about 23 of these respondents are smokers from non-smoking areas. About 96 smokers came on my 6 hour observation, about 22 were female and 74 were male.
Again, I was able to observe many smokers coming to the non-smoking area. About at least 25% of the total number of smokers was in the restricted area, and of these smokers, around 15 were female.
I was also able to interview around 16 of the 23 respondents coming from the said area.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment