Poster No. 8

The impact of point-of-sale anti-smoking advertising on adult smokers’

quitting intentions and behaviours: Findings from the ITC China Survey

Lin Li 1*, Ron Borland 1, Geoffrey T. Fong 2, Hua-Hie Yong 1

1. VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, Cancer Council Victoria, Australia;

2. Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Canada.

*Corresponding author: Lin Li, PhD

E-mail: lin.li@cancervic.org.au

Presentation at the 9th Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health, Sydney, October 2010

Aim and Methods

• Aim: To examine the association between exposure to anti-smoking advertising at the point of sale (POS) and smokers' quitting intentions and behaviours.

• Methods: ITC China Survey is a prospective face-to-face cohort survey – Stratified multi-stage cluster sampling design – Participants were from Beijing and other 5 cities

• In mid 2006, 4,732 adult smokers were first surveyed. Of these, 3,863 were successfully followed up in the second Wave in late 2007, with a 16 months inter-survey interval and a retention rate of 82%.

• Baseline measures of exposure to POS anti-smoking information, dependence and sociodemographics were used prospectively to predict smokers' intentions to quit and making quit attempts. Logistic regression modelling was employed.

Key results

• Overall, 964 out of the 3863 (25%) smokers reported having intentions to quit at Wave 2 of the survey.

• After adjustment for demographics and dependence, smokers who reported being exposed to anti-smoking information in stores where they bought tobacco were more likely to have intentions to quit than those who were not exposed (30.7% vs 25.7%, adjusted odds ratio=1.27, 95%CI: 1.02-1.59, p<0.05).

• A marginally higher proportion of smokers who had noticed anti-smoking information around street vendors made quit attempts between Waves than did those had not noticed (28.9% vs 25.1%), but the differences were not significant either in univariate or multivariate analyses.

• Those smokers with higher levels of nicotine dependence were less likely to have intentions to quit and have made quit attempts between Waves.

Conclusions

• The results indicate there is a positive association between smokers’ exposure to anti-smoking information in stores and their intentions to quit.

• Given the sheer size of smokers in China, more comprehensive POS anti-smoking interventions are needed to encourage people to quit, and continuous evaluation of the impacts of such interventions is vital.

 

ITC Project Research Support

Core support provided by the U.S. National Cancer Institute to the

Roswell Park TTURC (P01 CA138389)

Additional major funding provided by the Canadian

Institutes of Health Research

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