engleski

Smoke out day! The case study from Croatia!

Preventing and quitting smoking are the two main strategies in the fight against smoking. Efforts to help smokers quit smoking are as worthy as preventive actions. There is evidence that mass media (TV, radio, advertisements, jumbo advertisements, leaflets and brochures) can be very useful in smoking prevention among minors. The Croatian national - smoking campaign: "Say YES to no smoking" received a boost launching its first no smoking day on March 5th, first day of Lent. The aim of the first "Smoke Out Day" was to create a supporting environment for people who want to give up smoking and to highlight a number of sources of help available to them. Roman Catholics represent over 80% of the population of Croatia. By organizing the non-smoking day of the first day of Lent, when majority of people decides on what they will deprive themselves of, we expected to have created conditions for majority of smokers to stop smoking for at least one day, hoping that this single day would turn into months or years. "Smoke Out Day", was supported by 500 public figures, from the President of the Republic, to Prime Minister, to representatives of the government and religious communites, to famous sportsmen, actors and singers. After the "Smoke Out Day", the survey was carried by an independent research agency, "Puls", out to evaluate the success of the action. This survey was performed among a two-phase stratified, randomly selected representative sample of 600 Croatian citizens over 15 years of age. The aim of these surveys was to evaluate the impact of the "Smoke out day" campaign: around 74% of respondents said they learned about the campaign from advertisements in newspapers, TV or radio commercials, or accidentally. Further question for smokers only revealed that 26% of them did not smoke a single cigarette on March 5, 2003. Out of those who smoked at least one cigarette on that day, 50% smoked less than usually because of the campaign, and 69% considered giving up smoking permanently. Over 80% of all respondents included in surveys assessed the action as useful.

Croatia; smoking prevention; smoke out day

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