Abstract
Background Tobacco use is a significant health concern in Southeast Asia, particularly in Bangladesh, where the greatest incidence of tobacco consumption occurs in a number of forms smoking, smokeless, and indigenous. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) requires tobacco product packaging to include adequate health warnings (text and visual). The study's objective is to investigate the effects of graphic health warnings on tobacco packs among Bangladeshi low socioeconomic groups. Study Design. Cross-sectional study. Methods The study was conducted with 400 participants (low socioeconomic people) by using the systematic sampling technique through a semistructured questionnaire in Demra and Tongi industrial areas of Dhaka city in Bangladesh during September 2019-November 2020. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations) and inferential analysis (i.e., chi-square tests) were performed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25.0) to explore the relationship between the graphic warning and the use of tobacco. Results This study illustrates that 89% of respondents smoke only cigarette or bidi, where 95.1% were daily smokers. About 72.2% reported pictorial warning message was more understandable while 90.8% reported the existing text warnings explicitly visualize the health harms. It has been found that there was a significant association between the respondent's opinion on the text warning that encouraged the respondent to quit tobacco use and the text messages “smoking causes throat and lung cancer” (p < 0.001) and “smoking causes respiratory problems” (p < 0.001). Around 96.7% knew about the graphic health warnings on the cigarette packets where 99.2% reported graphic warning explicitly visualizes the health harms. In graphical warnings, text messages have a great influence on quitting smoking where “smoking causes throat and lung cancer” (p < 0.001) and “smoking causes stroke” (p < 0.001). Nearly 79.2% of respondents thought the color of the graphic warning should be “Red” and a significant association between the color and the education level of the respondents explored here (p < 0.05). Conclusions GHWs are more understandable on tobacco packets, and it has significant impacts on being aware of health consequences from tobacco consumption.
Highlights
BackgroundTobacco use is a significant health concern in Southeast Asia, in Bangladesh, where the greatest incidence of tobacco consumption occurs in a number of forms smoking, smokeless, and indigenous
Tobacco use is a significant health hazard in Southeast Asia
This systematic random sampling study targeted all the low socioeconomic people who live in Demra and Tongi industrial areas in Bangladesh to get a comprehensive picture of graphic warning of tobacco smoking among low socioeconomic populations
Summary
Tobacco use is a significant health concern in Southeast Asia, in Bangladesh, where the greatest incidence of tobacco consumption occurs in a number of forms smoking, smokeless, and indigenous. The study’s objective is to investigate the effects of graphic health warnings on tobacco packs among Bangladeshi low socioeconomic groups. About 72.2% reported pictorial warning message was more understandable while 90.8% reported the existing text warnings explicitly visualize the health harms. It has been found that there was a significant association between the respondent’s opinion on the text warning that encouraged the respondent to quit tobacco use and the text messages “smoking causes throat and lung cancer” (p < 0:001) and “smoking causes respiratory problems” (p < 0:001). Text messages have a great influence on quitting smoking where “smoking causes throat and lung cancer” (p < 0:001) and “smoking causes stroke” (p < 0:001). GHWs are more understandable on tobacco packets, and it has significant impacts on being aware of health consequences from tobacco consumption
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