Exposure to anti-smoking advertising across six European countries, findings from the international tobacco control six european countries (ITC-E6) survey of the EUREST-PLUS study

• Main Authors: Sarah O Nogueira, Sara C Hitchman, Ann McNeill, on behalf of the EUREST-PLUS consortium
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: European Publishing 2018-06-01
• Series: Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
• Subjects: tobacco control; Europe
• Online Access: http://www.journalssystem.com/tpc/Exposure-to-anti-smoking-advertising-across-six-European-countries-findings-from,90464,0,2.html

Introduction Exposure to anti-smoking advertising and its effects differ across countries. This study examines: 1) reported exposure to anti-smoking advertising on traditional mass media and internet/social media; 2) the relationship between exposure to anti-smoking advertising and two other variables: knowledge of the harms of smoking/SHS and quit attempts in six European countries. Methods Data come from the first wave of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project 6 European Country Survey (ITC 6E) (Germany [DE], Greece [GR], Hungary [HU], Poland [PL], Romania [RO] and Spain [ES]) carried out between June 2016 and September 2016 (n=5805). Key measures included whether in the last six months participants had noticed anti-smoking advertising, their knowledge of 13 adverse smoking/SHS health effects and if they have made at least one quit attempt in the last 12 months. Results RO and PL participants had significant higher odds of reporting exposure to anti-smoking advertising than DE, GR, HU and ES participants in 4 of the 6 of the media venues. Reported exposure to anti-smoking advertising was not associated with higher health knowledge in the six countries. There was a significant and positive association between exposure to anti-smoking advertising and quit attempts in the last 12 months. Conclusions Participants in countries where an anti-smoking advertising campaign happened in the last 2 years, had the highest odds to report exposure to anti-smoking advertising. Participants exposed to anti-smoking advertising were more likely to make a quit attempt than those not exposed. However, exposure to anti-smoking advertising was not associated with health knowledge. Funding Travel expenses for the conference will be funded by La Caixa Fellowship programme through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklowdowska-Curie grant agreement. This work was supported by a grant from the European Commission (Horizon2020 HCO-6-2015; EUREST-PLUS: 681109)