Perception and attitude toward e-cigarettes of the people of Sukhirin District Narathiwat Province.

Abstract

     This research survey research. The objectives were 1) to study the level of information awareness about e-cigarettes, 2) to study the level of attitude toward e-cigarette smoking, and 3) to study the relationship between information awareness and attitude toward e-cigarette smoking of the people in Sukhirin District, Narathiwat Province. The sample group consisted of 207 people aged 15 years and over in Sukhirin District, Narathiwat Province. The sample size was determined by using the G*Power program by selecting the Goodness-of-fit test: Contingency and setting the effect size = 0.30, error prob. = 0.05, and power (1-B error prob.) = 0.95. The data collection tool was an online questionnaire. The statistics used in data analysis were Chi-square statistic and Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient
     The research results found that personal factors classified by gender had a P-Value = 24.453, age had a P-Value = 49.413, marital status had a P-Value = 60.908, occupation had a P-Value = 101.453, having a close person who smokes e-cigarettes had a P-Value = 24.453, and income had a P-Value = 21.514, which were significantly lowly related to attitude toward e-cigarettes at the .05 level. For the relationship between perception and attitude toward e-cigarettes, it was found that the relationship between perception of e-cigarettes had a P-Value = 21.514, which has a significant relationship with attitudes towards e-cigarettes at the .05 level. And when considering each item It was found that the issue with the most positive relationship of the perception of e-cigarettes was the issue that e-cigarettes are considered a new type of drug and have more dangerous toxins than regular cigarettes (r = 0.244, P = 0.001), followed by the issue that smoking e-cigarettes once is equivalent to smoking 15 regular cigarettes and has more nicotine than regular cigarettes (r = -0.200, P = 0.000), the issue that e-cigarettes are as dangerous as heroin and cocaine, and e-cigarettes are as dangerous as heroin and cocaine (r = -0.191, P = 0.005) with statistical significance at 0.05, respectively.