Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Tobacco advertisement, promotion, and sponsorship (TAPS) in all forms influences youth smoking behaviors. TAPS exposure enhances their smoking frequency and vulnerability. A 2018 Indonesia Ministry of Health (MoH) Survey showed increased smoking prevalence among youth aged 10-18 years. Thus, our objective was to analyze the relationship between TAPS and the increased Indonesian youth smoking behavior. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of the Indonesian 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey. The sample size differed in each variable: current smokers n=3386, ever smoker n=3666, and cigarette consumption per day n=1355. We adjusted for socioeconomic and demographic variables and used logistic regression with youth smoking prevalence as the outcome and TAPS variables as the primary exposures. RESULTS: The current male youth smoker prevalence was 38.3%, ever smoker was 67%, and high consumption per day smoker (≥2 cigarettes per day) was 39.1%. Youth respondents exposed to the promotion or sponsorship of cigarette products showed an increase in three smoking behaviors. In particular, when youth respondents were exposed to more than one type of cigarette promotion (AOR=1.67, 95% CI: 1.33-2.09) or noticed one type of cigarette sponsorship (AOR=2.06, 95% CI: 1.44-2.93), their odds of all three smoking behaviors (current smoker, ever smoker, and high consumption smoker) increased. CONCLUSIONS: TAPS increase smoking behaviors among Indonesian youth. Therefore, to protect Indonesian youth health in the future, strategic action is needed to reduce youth smoking by banning all forms of TAPS in Indonesia.