A population survey on legislative measures to restrict smoking in Ontario: 3. Variables related to attitudes of smokers and nonsmokers.

A telephone survey of 1,383 residents of Ontario was conducted to assess attitudes toward antismoking legislation and knowledge of active and passive smoking health effects. After estimation of population parameters, analyses were carried out separately in smokers and nonsmokers to determine which characteristics, if any, were related to positive and negative attitudes, higher or lower knowledge scores, and predicted compliance or noncompliance with restrictive measures. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out. This paper reports the results for several measures of attitudes including restrictions on smoking locations and sales, differential insurance rates, control of advertising, and increase in taxes on cigarettes. Identification of smokers who hold negative attitudes is more reliable than identification of nonsmokers who hold positive views. Because different sets of variables were found to be related for the different attitude measures, it may be necessary to design different kinds of programs to prepare individuals for changes in legislation. The companion paper on p. 323 reports on the results for knowledge of active and passive smoking health effects and predicted compliance.