None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The proposed study would investigate the effectiveness of the graphic warning labels currently featured on tobacco products and whether they can be enhanced by adding messages which target self-efficacy. Self-efficacy can be understood as the level of confidence to which a person believes in their own capacity to carry out a given action, despite potentially arising difficulties. Manipulating self-efficacy beliefs and has been observed to enhance the effectiveness of confronting or threatening health messages (‘fear-appeals’), which are often found to backfire. The current tobacco warning labels used in Australia make extensive use of fear-appeals. This study would measure whether sticking self-efficacy messages onto current warning labels (while ensuring the graphic images remain visible) can influence intentions and behaviours observed to be related to quitting smoking among a group of sixty tobacco smokers. A study-provided smartphone would be used to assess perceptions of personal health risks due to smoking, intentions and behaviours several times a day over a three week period. The first week of the study would be a baseline phase in which all participants report their risk perceptions, intentions and behaviours while continuing to smoke from the standard tobacco packaging. The second and third week would be the experimental phase, during which participants would be randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group would smoke from packages with self-efficacy messages attached and the control group would smoke from packages with current warning labels. All participants would continue to report their risk perceptions, intentions and behaviours, allowing researchers to assess changes between the two groups as well as changes within individual participants by comparing the baseline phase to the experimental phase. Participants would visit the laboratory three times during the course of the study: an induction visit at the beginning; a visit at the end of the baseline phase during which randomisation will take place, and a visit at the end of the experimental phase. At each visit they would be required to give a sample of exhaled breath for the measurement of carbon monoxide content. Carbon monoxide levels provide an indication of how much a person smokes and allows researchers to check how reliably participants report their smoking behaviour. Moreover, they will complete a brief assessment of their overall risk perceptions, intention and smoking behaviour during the last week. This will allow us to compare stable measures of the proposed determinants of behaviour with real-time measures. During the final visit, participants will be debriefed and asked to provide feedback. Moreover, at this time, participants in the control group will receive the same set of study-specific labels the experimental group received during the experimental phase, thus they will have access to the same intervention material after the study is completed.
Interventions
This study will recruit a community sample of smokers for a three week trial assessing the effect of adding self-efficacy messages to the graphic warning images displayed on tobacco packaging. The trial consists of a baseline phase of one week, during which all participants smoke from packaging displaying the current government mandated health warning labels (HWLs), and a two week experimental phase wherein participants will be randomly assigned to a control or an experimental group and will be
This study will recruit a community sample of smokers for a three week trial assessing the effect of adding self-efficacy messages to the graphic warning images displayed on tobacco packaging. The trial consists of a baseline phase of one week, during which all participants smoke from packaging displaying the current government mandated health warning labels (HWLs), and a two week experimental phase wherein participants will be randomly assigned to a control or an experimental group and will be exposed to different HWLs accordingly. All participants will be required to stick an adhesive label over the warning label on the packaging of their tobacco (which they have purchased as usual) at the time of first opening. Those in the control group will have labels identical to the standard HWLs currently in circulation. Those in the experimental group will have labels with the same graphic images, but will have a study-specific self-efficacy message in place of the usual text warning. All participants will be required to carry a hand-held computer with them at all times for the duration of the study and will complete frequent assessments recording their smoking- related cognitions and behaviours as well as take photographs of their tobacco packaging with study-specific HWLs in place in order to monitor compliance. . Participants will also visit a laboratory at the University of Tasmania three times during the course of the trial and provide samples of exhaled air to verify their self-reported smoking behaviour by measuring carbon monoxide levels. These visits would be scheduled at the beginning of the baseline phase, at the conclusion of the baseline phase and at the end of the experimental phase. Efficacy message labels will target response efficacy, self-efficacy and control perceptions and will feature an alternative warning statement (the large, bold text above the graphic image) and and alternative explanatory message (the smaller, more detailed text below the image on the back of the package). Efficacy messages will vary according to the nature of the graphic image with which they are combined. For example, a warning statement combined with and image of a damaged heart might say "DON’T SMOKE THIS ONE AND UNCLOG YOUR ARTERIES.Use nicotine patches and gums in combination to beat cravings" and feature an explanatory message such as: "If you quit smoking now, your risk of coronary heart disease will drop by half in a years’ time. It’s not too late. You can talk to your GP to get nicotine patches to overcome your cravings. Quitting at any age is well worth the effort".
Sponsors
Dr. Natalie Schuez
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Current smokers from the greater Hobart area, who have smoked a minimum of ten cigarettes daily for the past three years. They must have an adequate grasp of the English language and not be interested in quitting in the next month
Exclusion criteria
Pregnancy, cognitive impairment, intellectual disability, mental illness.
Outcome results
None listed