Data collection

Data collection was undertaken by sending a questionnaire link to the health volunteers in the target sub-districts in Kosamphi Nakhon District, who acted as a node for distributing the link to the smokers living in their respective areas (one health volunteer was responsible for a group of 10–15 people). The first page of the online questionnaire contained information about the protection of the participants’ rights. The participants were informed that their responses to this questionnaire were anonymous, and they could refuse to participate in this research without giving any reason and not being affected. If the participants were willing to take part in this survey, they would tick a box of informed consent. After that, those who provided informed consent were allowed to complete the questionnaire four parts themselves. It took about 15–20 minutes to complete the questionnaire. All participants’ responses were then exported to an Excel file which was kept in a researcher’s coded computer. The data collected were used for the analysis of the overall results only.