I would like to invite HIFA members to identify any research on knowledge about smoking and lung cancer in your country. You may like to type "knowledge about smoking and lung cancer" and the name of your country into your search engine and see what comes up.
Below is a paper in the journal Tobacco Induce Diseases. Citation and abstract below. The full text reveals that one in ten people do NOT agree that smoking causes lung cancer. It seems that it is wrong for us to assume that knowledge of the link between smoking and lung cancer is near-universal. What do we know about the substantial minority who do not believe there is a link? What information (or misinformation) shapes their opinion?
CITATION: Knowledge of the health risks of smoking and impact of cigarette warning labels among tobacco users in six European countries: Findings from the EUREST-PLUS ITC Europe Surveys
Antigona C. Trofor et al on behalf of the EUREST-PLUS consortium*
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 2):A10
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18332/tid/99542
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The aim of this study was to examine knowledge of health effects of smoking and the impact of cigarette package warnings among tobacco users from six European Union (EU) Member States (MS) immediately prior to the introduction of the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) in 2016 and to explore the interrelationship between these two factors.
Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected via face-to-face interviews with adult smokers (n=6011) from six EU MS (Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Spain) between June–September 2016. Sociodemographic variables and knowledge of health risks of smoking (KHR) were assessed. Warning salience, thoughts of harm, thoughts of quitting and foregoing of cigarettes as a result of health warnings were assessed. The Label Impact Index (LII) was used as a composite measure of warning effects. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to examine sociodemographic predictors of KHR and LII and the inter-relationship between knowledge and LII scores.
Results: The KHR index was highest in Romania and Greece and lowest in Hungary and Germany. While the majority of smokers knew that smoking increases the risk for heart diseases, lung and throat cancer, there was lower awareness that tobacco use caused mouth cancer, pulmonary diseases, stroke, and there were very low levels of knowledge that it was also associated with impotence and blindness, in all six countries. Knowledge regarding the health risks of passive smoking was moderate in most countries. The LII was highest in Romania and Poland, followed by Spain and Greece, and lowest in Germany and Hungary. In almost all countries, there was a positive association between LII scores and higher KHR scores after controlling for sociodemographic variables. Several sociodemographic factors were associated with KHR and LII, with differences in these associations documented across countries.
Conclusions: These data provide evidence to support the need for stronger educational efforts and policies that can enhance the effectiveness of health warnings in communicating health risks and promoting quit attempts. Data will serve as a baseline for examining the impact of the TPD.
Best wishes, Neil
Co-chair, HIFA project on Mental health: meeting information needs for substance use disorders - Tobacco, Alcohol, Opiates
https://www.hifa.org/projects/mental-health-meeting-information-needs-su...
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
