Hygiena 2007, 52(4):105-109

Smoking and the Opinions of Parents of School Age Children

Drahoslava Hrubá¹, Iva Žaloudíková²

¹ Lékařská fakulta MU, Brno

² Pedagogická fakulta MU, Brno

In the program "Non-smoking is normal", attention is drawn to and effort made to involve parents in targeted education and bringing up of their children towards a healthy lifestyle, including their protection against passive smoking. Parents' experience and opinions were measured in a questionnaire containing 10 questions, each with several options of answers, distributed through their children in the 2nd grade of primary school. The data were evaluated by the statistic program EPI INFO (χ2 test). Together 565 parents filled in the questionnaire; among them 59.9 % did not smoke, in 28.0 % families there was one smoker and in 12.1 % families both parents smoked. The majority of parents (95.5 %) agree that passive smoking is harmful for children, but almost 20 % participants described smoking at home. One third of parents believed that a ban of smoking at public places may also positively influence and reduce smoking at home because smokers shall realize that their smoking habit may also endanger members of their families. According to the opinion of the parents, to smoke outdoors is most often the way of protecting children against passive smoking. One third of families with one smoker and more than half of those with two smokers wished to pay more attention to the protection of children against smoking and more than 90 % respondents agree with and welcome the anti-smoking educational activity of the school.

Keywords: "Non-smoking is normal", parents' opinions

Published: December 2007  Show citation