[Smoking among journalists in the private and public media in Togo]

Collaboration with journalists should help to reduce the tobacco epidemic. All over the world, no study assessed the extent of tobacco smoking in the bosom of reporters.

To determine the prevalence of tobacco smoking among reporters and to evaluate their attitudes towards tobacco.

A cross-sectional survey using an anonymised questionnaire was conducted among reporters working for both the public and private media in Togo between the 1st May and the 31st June 2005 using the "from door to door" method. Data analysis was performed with Epi-Info 3.3.2.

The participation rate was 82.44%. The prevalence of tobacco smoking was 25%. Smoking was more common in men (26.1% versus 19.6%, p=0.03). The average age that subjects had started to smoke was 17.1 years (Range: 6 and 30 years) with all smokers reporting that they smoked tobacco only in the form of cigarettes. 79.3% of smokers thought that they would quit within the next five years. Only 6.2% reporters often talked about smoking while on the microphone. A majority of the reporters approved of anti-smoking initiatives.

Because of their importance in the diffusion of news, the media must be enrolled in the fight against tobacco.