Prevalence of unawareness of various health consequences of tobacco use among school personnel from 29 African countries, 2006–2011 (n=17 929)
| Region/country | Unawareness that tobacco use does not cause malaria % (95% CI) | Unawareness that tobacco use is addictive % (95% CI) | Unawareness that tobacco use causes lung cancer % (95% CI) | Unawareness that tobacco use causes heart disease % (95% CI) | Unawareness that secondhand smoke exposure is harmful % (95% CI) | Unawareness in one or more domains % (95% CI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Africa | ||||||
| Namibia (n=746) | 30.6 (26.7 to 34.4) | 19.7 (16.3 to 23.2) | 3.2 (2.0 to 4.4) | 21.0 (16.1 to 26.0) | 11.1 (7.7 to 14.4) | 54.1 (48.5 to 59.7) |
| Swaziland (n=473) | 36.4 (30.6 to 42.3) | 7.8 (5.3 to 10.3) | 4.1 (2.7 to 5.4) | 27.6 (22.3 to 32.8) | 2.9 (1.3 to 4.5) | 54.6 (49.7 to 59.4) |
| South Africa (n=1485) | 31.0 (21.5 to 40.4) | 5.6 (1.9 to 9.4) | 2.8 (0.4 to 5.1) | 12.7 (8.8 to 16.6) | 8.0 (4.3 to 11.6) | 47.4 (39.3 to 55.6) |
| Lesotho (n=103) | 50.5 (N/A) | 21.8 (N/A) | 2.9 (N/A) | 14.9 (N/A) | 0.0 | 65.0 (N/A) |
| West Africa | ||||||
| Burkina Faso (n=862) | 44.8 (33.6 to 56.1) | 9.2 (4.9 to 13.5) | 5.7 (2.8 to 8.6) | 9.9 (5.2 to 14.5) | 3.1 (0.9 to 5.2) | 54.8 (43.9 to 65.6) |
| Ghana (n=391) | 50.5 (43.1 to 57.9) | 13.8 (8.7 to 19.0) | 3.9 (0.7 to 7.1) | 4.7 (1.6 to 7.8) | 2.2 (0.2 to 4.3) | 58.5 (51.9 to 65.2) |
| Mauritania (n=505) | 63.5 (55.3 to 71.6) | 17.5 (10.7 to 24.2) | 4.1 (1.7 to 6.5) | 23.4 (19.5 to 27.3) | 2.0 (0.8 to 3.3) | 72.8 (65.7 to 79.8) |
| Niger (n=624) | 53.7 (47.5 to 59.9) | 25.1 (19.9 to 30.3) | 10.7 (8.8 to 12.5) | 26.4 (22.5 to 30.3) | 1.7 (0.0 to 3.4) | 70.7 (66.7 to 74.6) |
| Senegal (n=619) | 10.1 (5.3 to 15.0) | 65.7 (55.2 to 76.3) | 2.2 (0.5 to 3.9) | 12.2 (8.0 to 16.3) | 5.0 (2.9 to 7.1) | 72.6 (63.9 to 81.4) |
| Togo (n=488) | 61.4 (54.6 to 68.2) | 26.7 (21.8 to 31.7) | 5.1 (3.2 to 7.0) | 10.6 (7.8 to 13.5) | 1.5 (0.1 to 2.8) | 71.4 (65.9 to 76.8) |
| Guinea Bissau (n=555) | 44.7 (N/A) | 42.8 (N/A) | 6.7 (N/A) | 21.8 (N/A) | 5.8 (N/A) | 76.8 (N/A) |
| Sierra Leone (n=914) | 49.3 (44.5 to 54.0) | 17.7 (12.2 to 23.1) | 11.1 (8.7 to 13.6) | 20.2 (17.3 to 23.1) | 5.8 (4.3 to 7.3) | 62.6 (58.1 to 67.1) |
| Central Africa | ||||||
| Cameroon (Central District) (n=1712) | 53.3 (47.8 to 58.7) | 22.1 (16.7 to 27.4) | 8.8 (6.9 to 10.7) | 20.0 (16.7 to 23.3) | 2.5 (1.4 to 3.6) | 68.4 (64.1 to 72.6) |
| Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa) (n=299) | 41.9 (31.7 to 52.1) | 22.2 (12.5 to 31.8) | 11.0 (6.8 to 15.2) | 18.1 (9.1 to 27.0) | 6.7 (3.8 to 9.6) | 61.2 (53.7 to 68.7) |
| Republic of Congo (n=453) | 30.6 (22.8 to 38.4) | 37.1 (24.2 to 50.0) | 8.7 (7.2 to 10.2) | 20.9 (17.7 to 24.2) | 4.3 (1.3 to 7.3) | 67.3 (62.0 to 72.6) |
| Central African Republic (Bangui) (n=497) | 66.2 (59.2 to 73.2) | 24.3 (18.3 to 30.4) | 5.4 (3.7 to 7.1) | 14.4 (8.8 to 20.0) | 1.6 (0.8 to 2.5) | 74.3 (67.1 to 81.5) |
| Eastern Africa | ||||||
| Djibouti (n=498) | 50.2 (47.5 to 52.9) | 17.8 (15.4 to 20.3) | 11.1 (9.4 to 12.7) | 9.3 (7.3 to 11.3) | 7.8 (6.2 to 9.4) | 63.5 (60.8 to 66.2) |
| Somalia (Somaliland) (n=214) | 51.3 (33.6 to 69.0) | 65.2 (48.8 to 81.7) | 80.4 (72.5 to 88.3) | 23.6 (12.3 to 34.9) | 25.2 (13.9 to 36.4) | 99.2 (98.1 to 100.0) |
| Malawi (n=276) | 23.1 (10.9 to 35.3) | 41.6 (32.7 to 50.5) | 8.0 (2.9 to 13.0) | 36.6 (22.0 to 51.2) | 12.3 (3.4 to 21.2) | 73.7 (59.0 to 88.4) |
| Uganda (n=682) | 18.0 (8.2 to 27.7) | 20.1 (13.8 to 26.3) | 3.2 (0.4 to 6.0) | 12.6 (8.1 to 17.1) | 4.3 (1.5 to 7.1) | 43.2 (27.8 to 58.7) |
| Eritrea (n=1446) | 37.6 (30.4 to 44.7) | 43.3 (36.7 to 49.8) | 7.2 (3.6 to 10.7) | 11.1 (7.9 to 14.2) | 10.8 (7.5 to 14.1) | 68.3 (61.7 to 74.9) |
| Seychelles (n=516) | 35.1 (30.7 to 39.5) | 8.5 (6.8 to 10.1) | 3.2 (2.4 to 3.9) | 9.2 (6.9 to 11.5) | 6.0 (4.5 to 7.6) | 45.6 (41.9 to 49.3) |
| Mauritius (n=863) | 36.4 (31.7 to 41.1) | 13.5 (9.2 to 17.7) | 4.4 (1.5 to 7.3) | 12.8 (9.5 to 16.2) | 5.5 (2.3 to 8.6) | 49.4 (46.2 to 52.6) |
| Rwanda (n=200) | 31.6 (23.4 to 39.9) | 33.2 (25.5 to 40.9) | 5.9 (3.2 to 8.7) | 10.7 (5.7 to 15.8) | 1.1 (0.0 to 2.6) | 56.1 (47.8 to 64.4) |
| Zimbabwe (Harare) (n=233) | 32.9 (N/A) | 46.1 (N/A) | –* | –* | 6.1 (N/A) | 66.1 (N/A) |
| Northern Africa | ||||||
| Morocco (n=699) | 28.8 (24.6 to 33.0) | 4.6 (2.9 to 6.3) | 3.4 (1.3 to 5.5) | 3.7 (2.2 to 5.3) | 2.1 (0.8 to 3.5) | 34.7 (30.4 to 39.0) |
| Tunisia (n=66) | 30.8 (N/A) | 7.6 (N/A) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 37.9 (N/A) |
| Libya (n=1241) | 23.9 (14.0 to 33.7) | 12.7 (9.8 to 15.7) | 2.7 (1.5 to 3.9) | 2.9 (1.8 to 4.0) | 3.7 (1.7 to 5.8) | 36.3 (26.0 to 46.7) |
| Sudan (n=269) | 29.5 (23.3 to 35.7) | 8.0 (4.9 to 11.1) | 3.4 (0.5 to 6.2) | 6.6 (3.8 to 9.5) | 3.8 (1.7 to 6.0) | 39.8 (34.2 to 45.4) |
*Separate questions were not asked for heart disease and lung cancer in Zimbabwe. Respondents were asked ‘Does tobacco use cause diseases like lung cancer or heart disease?’ In total, 8.2% of school personnel in Zimbabwe were unaware that tobacco causes lung cancer or heart disease.
N/A, not applicable (95% CIs not shown where ‘N/A’ indicated because both upper and lower limits were identical to the point estimate since a complete census of school personnel was taken, rather than a sample, resulting in final survey sampling weight=1 for all respondents).