Violation of the Tobacco Control Law by Drivers in Vehicles in Two Streets in İzmir: A Descriptive Study

Özet

OBJECTIVES: After signing and approving the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Turkey amended laws on tobaccocontrol in 2008 and also expanded the smoking ban in 2013 to include drivers in all vehicles. Four years later, this amendment does notseem as effective. The aim of this study was to observe violation of the law by the drivers and to analyze the association between genderof the driver, type of the vehicle, approximate age group definition of the passenger (either child or adult), and the law violation in twostreets in Konak district, İzmir, Turkey.MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, two observer teams were located in two different busy streets on the sameafternoon and they collected data on the violation of the law, gender of the driver, approximate age group definition of the passengers(either adult or child), and type of the vehicle (special, taxi, or other commercial). Logistic regression for the violation of the law wasconducted.RESULTS: Law violation prevalence is 7.2%. In univariate analysis, the gender of the driver and having at least one child as a passengerwere associated with the violation of the law. In multivariate analysis, not having children increases (OR: 8.4) the risk of the violation ofthe law.CONCLUSION: The violation of the law was high, but the drivers seemed to be aware of the harms of smoking by looking at the increasedrisk of the violation in vehicles, in which no child was carried as passengers.