# Presentation: 663714

## On the Road to a Tobacco-Free Ghana

***Edith Koryo Wellington***
***Senior Research Officer***
***Ghana Health Service***

## Overview

- Discuss findings from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS)
- How GYTS was used for policy, communications and program initiatives
- Achievements
- Recommendations for future

## Global Youth Tobacco Survey

- Conducted in 2000 to document and monitor the prevalence of tobacco use among youth
- Partnership with WHO,
- 	CDC, Ghana Education Service

## Objectives

- Understand and assess students’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviors related to tobacco use and its health impact

## Methodology

**School-based survey of students in JSS1,2,3 grades**
**Two-stage cluster sample design**
**1917 students participated in the survey**

## Key Findings - Prevalence

- 4.8% currently smoke cigarettes
- 17.2% currently use other tobacco products
- 16.5% of never smokers are likely to initiate smoking

## Key Findings – Secondhand Smoke Exposure

- 21.9% live in homes where others smoke
- 26.1% have one or more parents who smoke
- 39.6% think smoke from others is harmful to them
- 57.2% think smoking should be banned from public places

## Key Findings – Media and Advertising

- 18.6% have an object with a cigarette brand logo on it
- 15.1% were offered “free” cigarettes by a tobacco company representative

## Key Findings – Access and Availability

- 52.2% buy their cigarettes in a store and have not been refused purchase because of their age

## GYTS Data was used to:

- Establish a National Tobacco Control Committee
- Draft of the Comprehensive Tobacco Control Bill
- Ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)

**Policy Interventions**

## Partnerships

**Government Agencies**
- -  Ghana Health Service
- 		-  Ministry of Health, Education, Customs, Tourism, Trade, 	   Attorney Generals Office, Food and Drugs Board
**Parliamentarians**
**Leisure and Hospitality Industry **(Tourist Board)
**Media**
- -  Radio, Television, Print, Wire Service
**Non-Governmental Agencies**
**International Partners**
- -  World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for  Disease    Control, American Cancer Society, Quit and Win Finland

***GYTS generated broad-based partnerships:***

## Dissemination and Information Exchange

***Using GYTS data for communication***
**Awareness workshops**
- Owners/managers of public places
- Members of Parliament
- Media personnel
- Health professionals
- Teachers
**Radio and TV talk shows**
**Print media**

## Program Interventions

- School education programs
- Counseling centers for cessation
- Quit and Win campaigns
- Importance of establishing smoke-free public places
- Survey to assess smoking in public place
- World No-Tobacco Day Celebrations

***GYTS formed the basis for tobacco control programming:***

## Program Interventions

- Launched “Health Professionals Against Tobacco”

***GYTS formed the basis for tobacco control programming:***

## School-based Interventions

*GYTS findings widely disseminated*
- Health talks
- Quiz to increase knowledge
- Pilot test model school health intervention program

## School-based Interventions

- Tobacco free-soccer competition

## School-based Interventions

- Variety shows
- films, drama, songs, poems, exhibitions

## Achievements

- GYTS  data has become a basic reference point used by high public officials
- 20 public places agreed to make their places tobacco free
- Health professionals has a code of practice for tobacco control
- GYTS data served as a source of information in drafting Ghana’s Tobacco Control Bill
- Ghana’s ratification of FCTC

## 
	“Tobacco causes harm to the youth.  In Ghana, 14.3% students tried smoking and 40% think the smoke from others is harmful to them”.

			While seconding a motion  to 			            ratify the FCTC  Hon. N. Akomea

**	****“****Tobacco causes harm to the youth.  In Ghana, 14.3% students tried smoking and 40% think the smoke from others is harmful to them”.**
- 			***While seconding a motion  to ******	******	******	******            ratify the FCTC  Hon. N. Akomea***

## Recommendations for future  

- Develop a national tobacco control action plan
- Train teachers and develop a comprehensive education program
- Develop an implementation strategy for FCTC
- Work with Parliamentarians to support and endorse/pass the tobacco control bill which will expedite action for a law in promoting smoke-free public places

## On the Road to a Tobacco-Free Ghana

***Edith Koryo Wellington***
***Senior Research Officer***
***Ghana Health Service***