The influence of anti-smoking messages to Indonesian youth smoking behavior: the Indonesian 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS)

INTRODUCTION: Various anti-tobacco promotions have emerged in order to reduce the detrimental impacts of tobacco advertising on adolescents. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between the exposure to anti-smoking messages and Indonesian youth smoking behavior. METHOD: We used secondary data from the Indonesian 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS). The participants were students from grades seven to twelve. We used multiple logistic regression to assess the relationship of anti-smoking messages exposure on the smoking behavior variable. We used complex samples process logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and controlling for relevant covariables. RESULTS: The percentage of the exposure to anti-smoking messages in all types were not more than 25% in each outcome variables. The results also showed that in the current smoker variables, adolescent who exposed to the two variables of anti-smoking messages increased the odds to become current smoker. The variables were anti smoking messages in media (AOR 1.41; 95% CI 1.15–1.73) and in school (AOR 1.26; 95% CI 1.06–1.50). On the other hand, in the smoking susceptibility variables, there were no variables of anti-smoking messages that had relation with it. CONCLUSIONS: The study concluded that there were only two variables of the anti-smoking messages that had relation with the Indonesian youth smoking behavior, which were current smokers. Unfortunately those variables increased the odds of the respondents to become current smokers. Indonesia government should develop media following international best practices to convey the anti-smoking messages.