Summary: | Introduction
This study aimed to determine associations between health warning
label content and motivation to quit waterpipe smoking by gender and smoking
location.
Methods
Convenience samples of university students in three Eastern
Mediterranean countries – Egypt (n=442), Jordan (n=535) and Palestine
(n=487) – completed an online survey assessing health warning labels.
Multinomial logit regression models were conducted to determine the association
between different variables, particularly gender and smoking location, with
motivation to quit.
Results
In Palestine, female smokers were more motivated to quit waterpipe
smoking when seeing textual warning labels related to children (T2) and
pregnancy (T6) [T2: 1.8 (95% CI: 1.1–2.8), T6: 2.7 (95% CI: 1.6–4.3)] compared
to males. Similar results were found in Jordan [T2: 1.6 (95% CI: 1.0–2.6),
T6: 1.8 (95% CI: 1.1–3.0)]. As for the smoking location, home-only smokers
in Palestine were more likely to quit in response to the following warnings:
waterpipe smoking is addictive T1: 2.3 (95% CI: 1.4–3.7), harmful for children
T2: 2.3 (95% CI: 1.4–4.1), harmful for the baby during pregnancy T6: 2.4
(95% CI: 1.3–4.3), and to believe that quitting reduces the health risks T9: 1.8
(95% CI: 1.0–3.1). These results were not found in Jordan nor Egypt. Smokers
reported that the most noticeable location of a HWL on a waterpipe device is
the mouthpiece.
Conclusions
A better understanding of motivation to quit and its association with
various warnings and smoking location could guide countries on which warnings
to require in legislation and where best to require them particularly in relation
to location.
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