RESUMO
Background: India’s Smoke-Free Law (SFL) was implemented in 2004 andreinforced on 2nd October 2008. This research attempts to understand the knowledgeand opinion of hospitality venue (HV) managers about second-hand smoke (SHS)and SFL as well as self-reported compliance with SFL in two Indian states.Methods: A survey was conducted among 804 randomly sampled HVs from projectSTEPS (Strengthening of tobacco control efforts through innovative partnershipsand strategies) in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, India. Four hundred and threeHVs from two districts in Gujarat and 401 HVs from six districts in Andhra Pradeshwere selected. The owner, manager or supervisor of each HV was interviewedusing a pre-tested structured interview schedule. Association of opinion scaleswith respondents’ background characteristics was assessed through the analysisof variance (ANOVA) method.Results: Out of the 403 respondents in Gujarat and 401 in Andhra Pradesh, 56.1%and 84.3% had knowledge about SFL respectively. Compliance of HVs with SFLwas 21.8% in Gujarat and 31.2% in Andhra Pradesh as reported by the managers.Knowledge about SHS was noted among 39.7% of respondents in Gujarat and25.4% in Andhra Pradesh. Bivariate results indicated that more educated HVmanagers showed higher support for smoke-free public places (P < 0.001) andwere more concerned about the health effects of SHS exposure (P = 0.002).Conclusion: Complete self-reported compliance with, and knowledge of SFL aswell as SHS was not found in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The education level ofHV managers is an important determinant to ensure compliance with SFL in publicplaces.
