Tobacco Retail Outlet Density Around Schools in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR 2024

Shweta Kulkarni's study provides geospatial evidence on tobacco retail outlet density around schools in Lao PDR. The dataset, last updated in 2026, contains results from auditing 233 outlets around 27 schools in Vientiane Capital between January and February 2024. It includes density and proximity metrics calculated within 250m to 1000m buffers in urban and rural districts.

Use Cases

• Analyze tobacco retail outlet density based on urban versus rural district comparisons mentioned in the description.
• Model proximity of schools to outlets violating regulations based on walking distance metrics.
• Compare outlet characteristics based on proximity to schools using the chi-square test results described.
• Examine the association between outlet advertising and youth smoking initiation as referenced in the introduction.

Strengths

• Data is based on a field audit of 233 specific tobacco retail outlets.
• Analysis includes specific median density values (e.g., 12, 3, 2, 0.5) and walking distances (e.g., 21.58m, 9.95m) for different districts.
• Study design compares urban and rural districts with different buffer sizes (250m, 500m, 1000m).

Limitations

• Dataset scope is limited to 27 schools in three districts of Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is very small at 19.7 KB, indicating limited raw data.

Provenance

Source

Shweta Kulkarni via figshare.

Collection Method

Field audit and geospatial analysis using geographic information systems.

Time Range

Data collected between January 19 and February 18, 2024.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-01 05:22:36; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Two urban districts (Chanthabuly and Sissatanak) and one rural district (Naxaithong) in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR.