Study On Fear Appeal And Behavior Reactions Of Tobacco Control Pictorial Warnings

Objectives:From the intuitive and abstract, the domestic and foreign characters, different passive smoking victims, disgust or not, varies types of disease, five aspects to research smoking-related behavior reactions of Chinese people toward pictorial warnings, and by using fear appeal theories to find out the relationship between fear, threat perception and smoking cessation intention, in order to explore the method to use the pictorial warnings appropriately under the circumstance of Chinese culture.Methods:We selected residents from eight communities in Hangzhou who were at or over the age of15by stratified random sampling. During the investigation, the investigators that were strictly trained controlled the questionnaires’quality. Finally, EpiData3.1were used for data entry. Descriptive statistics, paired x2test were used for data analysis with SPSS16.0.Qualitative data was collected via E-mail to study the respondents’ avoidance reactions and simple descriptive statistical method was used.Results:A total number of643residents were approached to participate in the study. The average age was43.9years old, among them192were smokers.,By compared the intuitive and abstract pictorial warnings, significant difference (P<0.05) were found in smokers’intentions to quit smoking and fear. No differences were found except the fear feelings (P<0.01) between the pictorial warnings that with Chinese and foreign characters. Fear and quit intentions were significantly different (P <0.01) between the pictorial warnings with a child as passive smoking victim and that with an adult male. Fear was a significant difference (P<0.01) between the pictorial warnings with a child and that with an adult woman. Pictorial warnings that with different types of disease were found differences in fear (P<0.01), intention to quit(P <0.01)smoking and intention to persuade relatives to quit smoking (P<0.05). Fear and intentions to quit smoking have a certain correlation (P<0.05). Threat perception aiso associated with intention to quit (P<0.05).Through the qualitative survey we found that60%of the residents had a strong avoidance response towards the pictorial warnings with lip cancer. Pictorial warnings with the victims of passive smoking did not show significant avoidance response, by analyzing the two groups, we found that intention to quit smoking and fear were different (P<0.05).Conclusion:Intuitive pictorial warning was more effective than abstract pictorial warning, while using different groups of people as the victims of passive smoking, the child was more effective than adult male. Different types of diseases have different effects on the smoking-related behavior. Both fear and threat perception are collated with intention to quit smoking, although some pictorial warnings may had strong avoidance, that didn’t mean they were not effective. Threat perception might not had strong relationship with fear and the intention to quit smoking.