Abdus Salam, Lecturer of Community Medicine, Chittagong Medical College. ABSTRACT. This paper is primarily aimed at focusing of the impact of health ...
ORIGINAL
JCMCTA 1994; 5 (1):
5·8
EFFECT OF HEALTH WARNING ON CIGARETTE PACKETS ON THE SMOKING BEHAVIOR Abdus Salam, Lecturer of Community Medicine, Chittagong Medical College. ABSTRACT This paper is primarily aimed at focusing of the impact of health warning on cigarette packets in Bangladesh. A study was conducted on the smokers of literate section in three central places of Dhaka city during March to May 1993. 200 respondents were selected purposively for the study. Central location interception techniques were used for collecting data. From the data the paper revealed that the health warning of cigarette packets is not much effective in terms of Its readability, understandability and ultimately in reducing the smoking behavior. INTRODUCTION Today there is no doubt that smoking is a slow motion sutclde': The thousands of chemicals in smoking affect the body in n1any different ways. so that smoking causes 1nany different diseases including several cancers and different types of vascular, respiratory and gastro-intestinal and other diseeses/. It goes without saying that the non-smokers have the right to breath fresh air and the smokers have no right to pollute the environmentv. As a matter of consequence all over the world today there is a movement against this social evtl+ Implementation of health warning in Cigarette Packets is one of the control measure against smoking. The health warning bears two dimensions. One is how much it is effective as communication media by it's location and the other is to see hO\.V effective the message in reducing percentage of smokers. Are the warning at all effective or do they bear any significance? Or it is merely an attempt to avoid the ban on the product. This paper intends to explore the ability of smoker to easily look at the warning to read the message. What do the smokers understand about the message of the warning? Does the warning reflects in the mind and causes the smokers to react and behave in relation to smoking as an effect of the warning.
MATERIALS & MITTHODS A descriptive type of study carried out in three central places of Dhaka city namely the Mohakhali Bus Terminal, Kamalapur Railway Station and Dhaka University Campus from March '93 to May '93. Study was conducted on the smokers of Class-VIII and above education level. Minimum education level was taken Class-VIII as it was assumed that below that level the respondents would not be able to 5
conceptualize the inherent meaning in the warning signal at ease. The central places were selected due to much gathering of people from different strata representing varied classes. Non-probability accidental type of sampling technique was used purposively for conducting the study and the sample size was restricted to 200 numbers. In order to collect the data an intercept questionnaire was used after thoroughly pretested it. The questionnaire was structured as well as open ended. The responses were collected from the respondents by the researcher himself and each interview was taken about 15-20 minutes time. The data obtained was checked for consistency and were transferred to suitable designed dummy table for processing and subsequent analyses. The data was processed manually and tabulated keeping in mind the study calculator.
FINDINGS TABLE-1 This table shows the distribution of respondents by ability to read the warning signal correctly. A Cigarette Packet was shown to each of the respondents to read the warning signal From the data it was found that 59°/o of the respondents could read it correctly and 41°/o could not read the same correctly. It was assumed that some of Bangla words used in the signal were difficult for some of them to read.
TABLE-1. DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY ABILITY TO READ THE WARNING SIGNAL OF CIGARETTE PACKETS CORRECTLY N = 200 Response Read Correctly Did not read correctly
Total
No. of Respondents
Percentage
118
59
82
41
200
100
TABLE-2 This table shows the distribution of respondents by understanding of each and every words of the warning signal. It was found that 54°/o of the respondents could understand each and every words and 46°/o were able to understand some of the word only.
TABLE-2.
DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY UNDERSTANDING OF EACH AND EVERY WORDS OF THE WARNING SIGNAL N = 200
Response Yes
To some extent
Total
No. of Respondents
Percentage
108
92
54 46
200
100 6
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TABLE-3
This table shows the distribution of respondents according to whether they reduced the smoking behavior after reading the warning signal on cigarette packets. It was found that only 10.So/o respondents reduced smoking, 34°/o reduced to some extent and 55.5°/o did not reduced the smoking behavior at all.
TABLE-3.
DISTRJBUTION OF RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO WHETHER THEY REDUCED SMOKING AFTER READING THE WARNING OF CIGARETTE PACKETS N = 200
Response
No. of Respondents
Percentage
Yes
21
10.5
To some extent
68
34
Not at all
111
Total
200
55.5 100
DISCUSSION In the study the respondents were selected having educational level of minimum class eight. The warning was stated in Bangla. So naturally it is expected that all respondents should be able to read the statement correctly. Unfortunately 41°/o of the respondents could not read the statement correctly (Table-1). The statement of warning is printed on the side of the cigarette packets. The letters used are also very small. So it does not always catch the sight of the smoker when they take out the sticks from the packet or handle it. In this regard this study correlates with the finding of David and Kendrick study about the readability of the Surgeon Generals warning on Cigarette advertisement in two outdoor media billboards and taxicabs ads in Atlanta and New York City respectively, where it was found that Surgeon General's warning is not readable in vast majority billboards and taxicabs ads due to small size of the letters, the excessive length of the warning, the distance between the viewers and the ads and movement between the viewers and ads.5
The respondents who could not read the warning correctly it can not be expected Irom that, they would be able to understand each and every words of the warning signal. From the data it was revealed that 46°/o of the respondents could not understand each and every word correctly (Table-2). Again, the respondents who could not understand the warning statement fuJly it can not be expected from them to reduce the smoking behavior. The paper revealed that 55.5°/o respondents did not reduce smoking behavior at all (Table-3). Cook stated that different warning on cigarette packets 7
have required to appear in alternation aiming a specific risk groups. But in this country the warning signal is not rotating in nature and not aimed at specific risk group. So the warning does not draw the attention of the smokers of different risk groups and not relate with the statement of Cook.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Thanks are due to Dr. A. z. M. Iftikhar Hussain, Assistant Professor of Health Education, National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM), Dhaka for his valuable guidance. The Author is also grateful to Director, NIPSOM and all the other Faculty Members of NIPSOM whose cooperation and advise helped much to carry out the study.
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Davis R. M. Kendric JS. The Surgeon General's Warnings in Outdoor Cigarettes Advertising. Are they Readable? JAMA-Journal of American Medical Association 261 (1), 90, 4 1989,
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Cook-k. Against the Law. World Health. The Magazine of World Health. Organization. Feb-March 1980 : 30.
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