title: Tobacco Access and Availability for Vietnamese School Children (aged 13-15): Results from the Global Youth Tobacco Use Survey (GYTS) 2014 in Viet Nam.
abstract: Efforts to reduce tobacco use among school children need to be based on understanding of access to cigarettes by these subjects because previous studies indicated that enforcement of laws for controlling tobacco sales seems to not affect teen/school children because they can obtain cigarettes from different sources. This paper aims to describe access to and availability of cigarettes among school students (aged 13-15 years old) according to the data from GYTS Vietnam 2014. In GYTS, a national school-based survey of students of grades 8-10, our findings showed that about 15% school children are current smokers who smoke at home, and that they could easily buy cigarettes from stores (63.2%), or someone else (27.8%), or street vendors (9%). Notably, over 85% of school children answered that they were not refused because of their age. This high percentage was nearly the same in the North (85.7%), the Centre (92.5%), and the South (89.7%) of Viet Nam. These findings show that it is quite easy for school children to obtain cigarettes and this is a crucial challenge for policy makers aiming to reduce tobacco use among youth in general and school-age students in particular.
authors.affiliation: Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi, Vietnam E-mail : btq@hsph.edu.vn.
authors.forename: Le Thi Kim
authors.initials: le TK
authors.lastname: Anh
authors.forename: Bui Thi Tu
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Quyen
authors.forename: Hoang Van
authors.initials: HV
authors.lastname: Minh
authors.forename: Kim Bao
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Giang
authors.forename: Phan Thi
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Hai
authors.forename: Doan Thu
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Huyen
authors.forename: Luong Ngoc
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Khue
authors.forename: Nguyen Tuan
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: Pham Thi Quynh
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Nga
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003132:Commerce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D062789:Tobacco Products / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution