Comparison between effectiveness of text and pictorial health warnings of tobacco packages in informing tobacco users about risk of oral cancers

Abstract

Background: Tobacco use continues to be the leading global cause of preventable deaths, killing nearly 6 million people worldwide each year. Tobacco control must be given high priority by scaling up tobacco control measures. In India under the Control of Tobacco Product Act, it is mandatory to keep the warning labels over all kinds of tobacco products to minimize the use of tobacco. Objectives: To determine whether tobacco packages with graphic warning labels or text-only warning labels had a stronger impact on addicting behavior. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among the group of people using tobacco in any form. A total of 776 tobacco users were enrolled in the study. Results: The mean age of tobacco users was 41.4 years. Out of the total of 776 tobacco users, 561 (72.3%) had noticed warning signals over the tobacco products. Among those who had noticed warning labels, 64.4% became aware about health effects and 66% had thought to quit tobacco. Tobacco users of the young age group (15–45) were more aware regarding warning labels. Females were less aware. As the level of education increases the number of tobacco users who tried to quit or reduce the daily quantity of tobacco intake also increases. Conclusions: The positive impact of warning labels has been seen among the tobacco users who have noticed them. Not all tobacco users were aware regarding the presence of warning labels as per the findings of the present study.