Health News
Graphic warning labels on cigarette packages can help smokers remember the message and the health risks associated with smoking, a study has found.
Researchers asked 200 smokers to look at either a text-only label advertisement ? which is similar to warnings that have been on cigarette packages since 1985 ? or a graphic warning label showing a hospitalized patient on a ventilator along with a written warning ? which has been proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Researchers used eye-tracking technology to measure how the advertisement was looked at and for how long, reports research-reporting service Newswise. Then participants were asked to rewrite the message they'd seen to show how well they remembered it.
Results showed 50 percent of participants who saw the text-only ad remembered the warning label, while 83 percent of those who saw the graphic image warning remembered what they'd seen.
"In addition to showing the value of adding a graphic warning label, this research also provides insight into how the warning labels may be effective, which may serve to create more effective warning labels in the future," said Andrew A. Strasser, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where the study was conducted. "We're hopeful that once the graphic warning labels are implemented, we will be able to make great strides in helping people to be better informed about their risks, and to convince them to quit smoking."
The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act mandated the FDA to require graphic warning labels on cigarettes packaging starting in September 2012. The mandate has since been held up in court. (Read more)
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Health News
Graphic warning labels help smokers remember tobacco health risks, study finds
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| Study participants looked at these two images while researchers assessed how effectively they were viewed. Graphic by Penn Medicine. |
Researchers asked 200 smokers to look at either a text-only label advertisement ? which is similar to warnings that have been on cigarette packages since 1985 ? or a graphic warning label showing a hospitalized patient on a ventilator along with a written warning ? which has been proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Researchers used eye-tracking technology to measure how the advertisement was looked at and for how long, reports research-reporting service Newswise. Then participants were asked to rewrite the message they'd seen to show how well they remembered it.
Results showed 50 percent of participants who saw the text-only ad remembered the warning label, while 83 percent of those who saw the graphic image warning remembered what they'd seen.
"In addition to showing the value of adding a graphic warning label, this research also provides insight into how the warning labels may be effective, which may serve to create more effective warning labels in the future," said Andrew A. Strasser, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where the study was conducted. "We're hopeful that once the graphic warning labels are implemented, we will be able to make great strides in helping people to be better informed about their risks, and to convince them to quit smoking."
The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act mandated the FDA to require graphic warning labels on cigarettes packaging starting in September 2012. The mandate has since been held up in court. (Read more)
- Study Finds Personalized Text Messages Helps Some Quit Smoking
Smoking is a hard habit to break. A recent study, reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that sending smokers personalized text messages was twice as effective as giving them self-help materials, Valerie DeBenedette writes...
- Judge Continues To Block Graphic Images On Cigarette Packs
Getting graphic labels on cigarette packages continues to be an uphill battle for the Obama administration, as a skeptical judge sided with cigarette makers who say "they can't be forced to spread the government's anti-smoking advocacy with 'massive...
- Fda Finds More Than 1,000 Retailers Selling Tobacco Products To Minors, Several In Kentucky
More than 1,200 retailers, including CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, were issued warning letters by the Food and Drug Administration this year for illegally selling cigarettes to minors. FDA inspectors conducted 27,500 undercover checks by sending children...
- New Cigarette Warning Labels To Be In Use By Fall 2012
Showing graphic photos of rotting teeth, a man with a zipper-like scar down the length of his chest and even a man with smoke coming out of his tracheotomy tube, the Food and Drug Administration unveiled this week the warnings that will be required on...
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