Smoking prevalence among administrators in universities with implementation of tobacco control capacity building project in China

Objective To examine smoking prevalence among administrators working in 91 universities with the implementation of tobacco control capacity building project and to evaluate the impact of the tobacco control project on the students of the universities.Methods During March and April 2015,telephone interviews on tobacco smoking behavior was conducted among presidents,vice-presidents for scientific research management and office manager from 91 universities with tobacco control capacity building project implemented between 2008 and 2013.Chi-square test was adopeted to compare smoking rate.Results The interviews were successfully completed in 89 colleges and the overall response rate of the 267 participants was 97.8%.Among the participants,the overall smoking rate was 24.5% and of the smokers,44.07% were presidents in the universities surveyed.There were no significant differences in smoking prevalence rate among the participants from universities with tobacco control project implemented in different years (χ²=3.644,P=0.162) and among the participants with different job titles (χ²=2.925,P=0.232).Conclusion The prevalence rate of smoking is high among administrators of the universities with tobacco control capacity building project in China,especially among presidents of the universities,and the situation should be concerned for the promotion of tobacco-free college campus in China.