Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The presence and density of tobacco retailers is associated with the perception of high availability of cigarettes and ease of purchase. Indonesia is the second largest cigarette market in the world with an increasing smoking rate among young people aged 10-18 years. Our study aims to assess density of cigarette outlets in neighbourhoods and around schools, and to evaluate correlation between retailer proximity to schools and retailer selling practices. METHODS: We conducted a geographical mapping and then an audit survey of 1000 randomly selected cigarette retailers in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. We measured neighbourhood retailer density, and retailer proximity to schools. We linked the coordinate data to the audit data to assess the association between retailer distance from schools with likelihood of selling tobacco to young people and selling single cigarette sticks. RESULTS: We mapped 4114 cigarette retailers in Denpasar, the most common type was a kiosk, 3199 (77.8%), followed by mini market/convenience stores, 606 (14.7%). Retailer density was 32.2/km(2) and 4.6/1000 population. We found that 37 (9.7 %) of the 379 schools in Denpasar have at least one cigarette retailer within a 25 m radius and 367 (96.8%) within a 250 m radius. Of the 485 audited retailers within a 250 m radius of a school, 281 (57.9%) admitted selling cigarettes to young people and 325 (67.0%) sold cigarettes as single sticks. Cigarette retailers were less likely to sell cigarettes to young people based on distance from schools, but this was only significant at the furthest distance of more than 500 m from schools. CONCLUSIONS: In an unregulated retailer setting such as Indonesia, cigarette retailers are ubiquitous and selling to young people is commonplace. The Indonesian government should enforce the prohibition on selling to young people and should regulate cigarette retailers to reduce youth access to cigarettes.