Last Saturday, November 12, 2022, the FPH UI Center for Biostatistics and Health Informatics Studies (PKBIK) Public Health Service and Service Institution (LPPKM) held an Online Seminar FPH UI Series 24 entitled “The Impact of Smoking Free Areas (KTR) Policy on Smoking Prevalence in Indonesia: Multilevel Model Analysis with R Applications. The Dean of FPH UI, Prof. dr. Mondastri Korib Sudaryo, M.S., D.Sc, to give a speech as well as open the event.
The habit of smoking is still one of the behaviors that cannot be separated from the daily lives of Indonesian people. Now, the smoking problem is becoming more serious. Not infrequently the habit of smoking is carried out in public places. This can have a negative impact on people who are accidentally exposed to cigarette smoke. Therefore, the Indonesian government made a No-Smoking Area (KTR) policy, namely rooms or areas that are declared prohibited for smoking activities, activities for producing, selling, or promoting cigarette products.
The seminar, which was moderated by the Teaching Team of the Department of Biostatistics and Population Sciences FPH UI, Popy Yuniar, S.K.M., M.M., Ph.D, succeeded in attracting the enthusiasm of the participants. The seminar material was delivered by Wahyu Septiono, S.K.M., MIH., Ph.D, the Teaching Team of the Department of Health Education and Behavioral Sciences, FPH UI.
Through his presentation, Dr. Wahyu explained a lot about his Ph.D dissertation which discussed the impact of KTR on smoking prevalence in Indonesia. Doctor Wahyu uses secondary data, namely Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) 2007 and 2013. The method used is quasi experiment, a study that allows a treatment to occur scientifically. Multilevel analysis or analysis with data structures involving more than one type of aggregation unit was chosen as the method of analysis in this study. The programming language used is the R language. R is a programming language based on mathematics. The R language is licensed free and has many diverse features.
The results of the analysis on adult smokers showed that provincial and district/city KTR in 2007 was not significant for all dependent variables, namely smoking behavior. Inconsistent results can be seen in the provincial and district/city KTR analysis in 2007-2013. The conclusion obtained is that in adult smokers, the intensity and continuation of smoking tends to occur in men who are younger, have less education, and live in rural areas with high tobacco production.
Meanwhile, the impact of KTR on adolescent smokers showed significant results on several dependent variables. Smoking behavior occurs more frequently in male adolescents who live in regencies/cities with low per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and high tobacco production.
Low education and low GDP per capita which are risk factors for smoking indicate that socioeconomic status has an influence on people’s smoking behavior, while the inconsistent relationship between KTR and smoking prevalence indicates that public compliance with KTR is still low and the implementation of KTR in Indonesia is still not firm. . Further evaluation is needed regarding the implementation of this KTR so that the KTR policy can effectively reduce morbidity and mortality due to smoking. (WR)
