Hithit Buga: the influence of bars to the smoking behavior of university students in Manila.

Abstract

The student’s perception on the accessibility of bars from their school location is significant to their frequency of visit and length of stay at bars. Consequently, their perception of accessibility is dependent on the minutes of walk they have to take when going to these bars. Bars are considered to have a smoke-friendly environment and results have shown that 82% of the respondents smoke more when they are inside these kinds of establishments. Peer Influence is also a factor in the smoking engagement of students. 100% of the respondents answered that they have friends who are smokers and that 91% of the respondents said that they were with their friends when they first tried smoking. In line with the previous literature, the highest influence for students to smoke are their friends, followed by stress level, bars, poor policy implementation, family and then allowance. Smoking is not only a personal behavioral issue but rather, it is also a political issue. There are bars that operate within the prohibited proximity and although not all bars and liquor-selling establishments violate the given policies their existence still poses an impact to the university students as long as these students perceive bars to be accessible from their school location. A stricter implementation is needed and a reevaluation of the present laws and ordinances is also necessary to see if such rules are still adequate to the present trends among University students.