The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: To describe the sociodemographic profile of the violators of the anti-smoking ordinance of Davao City,Philippines.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was done to determine the sociodemographic profile of the 513 violators of the anti-smoking ordinance of Davao City during its first two months of implementation. Age, sex,frequency distribution of apprehension of police precincts per week and place distribution of the violators apprehended in the non smoking areas in the city were described.

Results: Of the 513 apprehended persons, 494 (96%) were males 19 (4%) were females. The mean age of the violators was 29.9+ SD 3.2 years.Minors(age below 18 years) comprised 8.5% of the violators. Majority of the violators (60%) were young adults aged 19 to 34 years.The top police precincts with the highest apprehensions were those located coming in the main streets for trade and market. There were 152 (30%)apprehensions in entertainment and food establishments, 92 (18%)in public markets, 65 (13%) in sidewalks, 59 (12%)in public utility vehicles and 34(7%)in enclosed areas. A decreasing trend of apprehensions per week was noted during the two-month study period.

Summary and Conclusions:The typical smoking ordinance violator in is a male in his early adulthood.Violators are usually seen in food and entertainment establishments. These findings which highlight important leads towards improving the implementation of the anti-smoking ordinance of the city, specifically allude to the potential role of the anti-smoking education and campaign among young males in alleviating the problems of passive smoking.