The influence of anti-smoking messages to Indonesian youth smoking behavior: the Indonesian 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS)

By 2019, approximately 1 billion people worldwide used tobacco products, including 847 million men and 153 million women [1]. A total of 25 million of these tobacco users are teenagers aged 13 to 15 [2]. The Southeast Asia Region (SEARO) and Western Pacific Region (WPRO) have the most smokers, accounting for approximately 6.4 million and 4.7 million, respectively [2]. Indonesia is a major contributor to the region’s number of smokers [2].

In Indonesia, adolescents aged 13 to 18 had a smoking prevalence of about 38.3% [2]. This percentage was significantly higher than in neighboring Malaysia (20.6%), Thailand (17.2%), and Myanmar (17%) [2]. Indonesia also had the youngest of age smoking initiation among the Association of Southeast Asia Nation (ASEAN) countries, which was around 16.8 years old [2, 3]. As a result, the Indonesian government must implement best practices in tobacco control in order to reduce the burden of tobacco-related diseases.

A large number of studies indicates that smoking at a young age has a negative impact on health instantly and increases the development of chronic diseases throughout one’s life [4]. Cigarette smoking in youth can lead to nicotine addiction, which has a long-term negative impact on brain development [5]. Furthermore, young smokers are at risk of slowing lung function and impaired lung growth [5]. An earlier case–control research in Blitar City found that smoking before the age of 15 increased the risk of getting Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) by 12 times compared to not smoking at all [6].

In addition, tobacco industries use both direct and indirect marketing efforts, such as sponsorship of sporting events and music festivals (e.g. billboards and commercials) [4]. Previous research have conclusively shown a relationship between teenage smoking behavior and tobacco advertisement [7‐9]. Various anti-tobacco advertising have appeared in an effort to lessen the negative effects tobacco promotions have on youth. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that there were four health communication strtategies to convey anti-smoking messages, which were paid media, earned media, social media, and program communication [10]. Most advertising have emphasized negative health implications, defying social forces and influences, or the tobacco industry’s financial interests and other aspects [11‐13].

Several researches looked at how anti-tobacco media affected teenage tobacco use reduction or prevention [14, 15]. Other researches related to anti-tobacco media focused on the anti-smoking initiatives and current smoking status in order to design effective interventions to curtail the smoking epidemic [16]. In 2014, a study conducted by Minh et al., analyzed the access to antismoking information among school children aged 13 to 15 years in Vietnam and examined its potential impact on preventing smoking initiation [17]. Several researches found that anti-smoking messages can be conveyed through various means. For example, study conducted by Huang et al., (2018) found that testimonial commercials with visual and emotionally evocative depictions of smoking-related ailments, may have a stronger effect on encouraging Taiwanese smokers to quit smoking [18]. Another example was a study conducted by Manocci et al., [19] showed that teenagers prefer anti smoking messages with scientific profile and those who uncover incorrect preconceptions about smoking.

However, few utilized secondary data to investigate youth smoking behavior and anti-smoking media in the national context. The secondary data’ analysis will be beneficial for the government to make adjustment in the public health policy and public health programs. Therefore, our objective was to to explore the relationship between the exposure to anti-smoking messages and adolescents’ smoking behavior based on the Indonesian 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS).

Tables 2 and 3 show that the tolerance value for all variables is greater than 0.10, whereas the VIF value for all variables is smaller than 10.00. According to the multicollinearity test, the test shows that there was no strong association between independent variables in the regression model.

Table 4 showed the distribution of respondents by current smoker and smoking susceptibility. Based on the sex, the percentage of male much greater than female in the both current smoker and smoking susceptibility variables. According to the education level, both of the outcome variables have similar percentage of the result. And for the weekly spending money, the current smoker variables and smoking susceptibility variables had the highest percentage in the group of less than IDR 11,000.

The accessibility to buy or consume cigarette variable showed that almost 20% of current smoker group and more than 10% of susceptible group were easy to buy cigarette. Further, the second hand smoking variables showed that in all places (in house and in school) significantly related to the outcome variables (p value: 0.001, < 0.01, < 0.05). In addition, the TAPS exposure variables showed similar result that all the type of TAPS exposure were significantly related to the outcomes variables (p value: 0.001, < 0.01, < 0.05).

The result also showed that the percentage of the exposure anti-smoking messages in all types to the outcome variables were not more than 30%. In the current smoker group, only anti-smoking messages at events exposed more than 25% of them. Meanwhile, the anti-smoking messages in media and school exposed less than 25% to the current smoker group.

In the smoking susceptibility group, the percentage of the exposure to anti-smoking messages were lower than 15% in all types. Anti-smoking messages on media and at events exposed around 13% to the smoking susceptibility group, while anti-smoking messages in school exposed around only 11% to the smoking susceptibility group.

Table 5 showed multivariate analysis of the relationship between the exposure of anti-smoking messages with current smoker variable and smoking susceptibility variable among Indonesian youth. The multivariate analysis conducted after controlling all covariates, which were characteristic of the respondents, accessibility to buy cigarettes, second hand smoking, and TAPS exposure.

Based on current smoker variables, adolescent who exposed to the two variables of anti-smoking messages increased the odds to become current smoker. The variables were anti smoking messages in media (AOR 1.41; 95% CI 1.15–1.73) and at events (AOR 1.26; 95% CI 1.06–1.50). Meanwhile, the exposure of anti-smoking messages in the school did not have relation with current smoker variables.

In the smoking susceptibility variables, there were no types of anti-smoking messages that were significantly related. It indicated that any type of anti-smoking messages had no relation with the susceptibility of smoking.

Our study showed that the result of our independent variables differed from majority of the researches. As a matter of fact, the exposure to anti-smoking media and at events increased the odds to become current smokers. While other independent variables were not significantly related to the outcomes variables. It meant that the anti-smoking messages needed to be modified so that the Indonesian youth understand and implement the important anti-smoking messages.

Our study found that anti-smoking messages in media and at event increased the odd to become current smoker and there were no relation with smoking susceptibility. It meant that the messages stimulated the youth to initiate or continue smoking cigarette. The findings were contrary to the majority researches that conclude any kind of media and program communication contributed to decrease the risk smoking behavior among youth group [21‐23].

The result of anti-smoking messages in school variable showed slightly different from the other independent variables. Anti-smoking messages in school were not related to both outcomes variables. It meant that the messages were not effective enough to convey anti-smoking messages to the Indonesian youth. The findings were to some extent divers from the mostly previous study about anti-smoking campaign, particularly in the school. The previous study found that school were able to convey the anti-smoking messages, such as prevent and encourage youth not to initiate smoking cigarettes, the danger of smoking, etc [24, 25].

Based on the authors’s experiences in the tobacco control field, the situation above happened because of several causes, such as the tobacco industry interference (TII) and the intensity of TAPS exposure. TII is several actions designed by tobacco industry to tackle and interfere with tobacco control, some of which are direct and indirect political lobbying and campaign contributions, financing of research, attempting to affect the course of regulatory and policy machinery and engaging in social responsibility initiatives as part of public relations campaigns [26]. In 2021, the result of the Global Tobacco Index score in Indonesia was 83 and the rank was 77^th from 80 countries [27]. It means that TII in Indonesia was still high compare to other countries.

The intensity of TAPS exposure and youth smoking behavior in Indonesia was proven by several researchers. In 2016, Prabandari et al., conducted study about assessing the relation between youths’ perceive of cigarette advertising and smoking initiation. This study discovered that cigarette advertisements were considered as influencing teenagers to smoke, and that smoking status was consistently correlated with perception of youth-targeted cigarette advertisements, attitude toward TAPS, susceptibility, and smoking friends and family [28]. Sutrisno et al., in 2021 found that there was a strong association between cigarette advertisement exposure and smoking friends and adolescents’ intention to smoke in the immediate and long term in Sleman Regency, Indonesia [29]. In Malang, Indonesia, during the pandemic situation, Laili et al., found that youth were quite highly exposed to the various types of advertisements and promotions of cigarettes that can influence increased smoking behavior [30].

However, Indonesia had several campaign conveying the anti-smoking messages. National campaign that launched by Indonesian Ministry of Health in 2016 were Suara Hati Anak (the voice of children) [31, 32]. The campaign was taken from the true story of a smoker in Muara Angke, North Jakarta, who because of his smoking habit ended up ruining the lives of his children. The other national campaign was Suara Tanpa Rokok (voice without cigarette) [33, 34]. The campaign talked about health consequences from smoking cigarettes.

On the other hand, almost all of covariates statistically had relation with the outcome variables, particularly second hand smoking (saw anyone smoking in house, school, and parents smoking), and TAPS [35] exposure. These findings were similar with majority of the previous researches. Study conducted by Efendi et al., (2019) found that in rural Indonesia, a significant portion of young men and teenagers consume tobacco [36]. Vitoria et al., (2020) stated in their findings that if their parents smoked, the respondents (senior high school students) had a higher likelihood of smoking as well [37]. Nurmansyah et al., (2020) stated that the smoking behavior of the respondents (teenagers in City of Depok, Indonesia) were found to be highly influenced by peer (friend), family, and teachers who smoked [38].

This study showed that TAPS exposure variables were significantly related to the outcomes variables. The findings were in line with previous researches that TAPS in all kind and creative form were related to the youth smoking behavior. Several researchers found that tobacco advertising (such as TV, internet, billboard, etc.) were the determining factors to the smoking behaviour [39, 40]. Tobbaco promotion (such as free vouchers, free gift, etc.) also contributed to the smoking behavior in youth group, some researches found that the initiation to smoking cigarette due to the tobacco promotion [41, 42]. Tobacco sponsorship (such as in the sports events, community events, etc.) also were one of the factors that lead youth to initiate smoking cigarette [43, 44].

Researcheres and some agencies stated that to convey anti-smoking messages effectively we can use health communications as a strategy [45]. CDC formulated that there were four types of health communication strategy to convey anti-smoking messages, which were paid media, earned media, social media, and program communication. Anti-smoking messages contain many information about the prevention of smoking, smoking cessation, the danger of smoking, etc [46, 47]. Adult- and youth-targeted public education efforts can have a significant impact on youth by avoiding initiation to smoke and maintaining prevalence reductions [46].

The study concluded that there were only two variables of the anti-smoking messages that had relation with the Indonesian youth smoking behavior, which were current smokers. Unfortunately those variables increased the odds of the respondents to become current smokers. Based on the findings of the research, we recommend to Indonesia government to develop a new anti-smoking messages following international best practices [21‐23] in all type of channel of communication so that Indonesian youth can easily access to it and to counter tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship.