Risk perception of cigarette and alcohol consumption: Korea and Cameroon public assessment views

Abstract

Introduction: There is a strong risk perception of personal knowledge on both cigarette-and alcohol-related harm. One possible factor contributing to this may be greater availability and access of cigarette and alcohol in the communities especially in developing settings. The causes of the difference in psychological factors that affect the public with high risk perception of cigarette and alcohol consumption was analysed. A higher perception of cigarette and alcohol availability is not only likely to increase supply but also to raise awareness of the different brands of alcohol, create a competitive local market that reduces product costs, and influence local social norms relating to cigarette and alcohol consumption. This paper assess risk perception with respect to the association between psychological paradigms of alcohol and cigarette use in both Korea and Cameroon nationwide. Methods: Using questionnaire survey a cross sectional study on risk perception regarding cigarette and alcohol consumption was assessed among some 2,181 men and 2,203 women from Korea and Cameroon who were over the age of 20 nationwide. Descriptive statistics were performed in order to analyse the sociodemographic characteristics of South Korea and Cameroon. Student’s t-test was performed to test the difference between risk perception and the psychometric paradigm. Correlational analysis was performed to analyse the relationship between risk perception and psychometric paradigm for each country. In order to analyse the components that affect risk perception, multivariate regression analysis was conducted. Results: The analysis results indicated that for Koreans, the risk perception from smoking was the highest 5.49 ± 1.37 which was beyond controllability and the perceived risk from alcohol consumption was the highest for Cameroonians 6.21 ± 1.22). The results indicated that both South Koreans and Cameroonians indicated a strong risk perception based on cigarette and alcohol consumption with regards to their personal knowledge, scientifically proven evidence, dread consequences and harm to future generations that were statistically significant. Conclusions: In this study we demonstrated the importance of risk perception of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption using psychological factors based on gender, age and region. Our expectation is that this study could shape the way public views could be integrated in the effective risk communication and implementation strategies towards the control of cigarette smoking and consumption within different communities around the world.