UPDATE FROM THE PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH CONSORTIUM

Dear Colleagues

Reports from the recently completed PHRC project  'Evaluating the impact of Picture Health Warnings on Cigarette Packets' (Lead: Heather Wardle, National Centre for Social Research) are now available below and on the PHRC web site http://www.york.ac.uk/phrc .

Smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable death and illness in the UK. Health warnings messages on cigarette packets are a proven way of communicating the health risks of smoking. In countries such as Australia and Canada, graphic picture health messages have been shown to be even more effective than textual warnings.

On the 1st October 2008, picture health warnings were introduced in the UK. This study evaluates the impact of this across a range of domains.

There were some notable emotional responses to the picture health warnings. The picture warnings were more likely to prompt smokers to think about their smoking behaviour and more people, including young people aged 13-17, agreed that the pictures made smoking seem less attractive or that they ‘put me off smoking’. Adult smokers were more likely to think about quitting after the pictures were introduced. However, it remains to be seen if these emotional responses are translated into behavioural change in the future. Our study also shows that there is a strong mandate of support for health warning messages, with the vast majority of adults and young people agreeing that the messages, either textual or picture, are necessary, truthful and impart important information.

However, the impact of the pictures was not as wide reaching as in Australia and Canada, with few behavioural changes observed. This, in part, may be due to differences in evaluation techniques used in each country but also may be due to different ways of implementing the pictures. In Australia and Canada, the pictures are larger than in the UK and are displayed on the front, rather than the reverse, of cigarette packets meaning that the messages, and the information they impart, are more prominent and more visible than in the UK.

Executive Summary:  http://www.york.ac.uk/phrc/PHRC%20A6-08%20Executive%20Summary%2012.pdf
Short Report:  http://www.york.ac.uk/phrc/PHRC%20A6-08%20Short%20Report%2012.pdf
Final Report:  http://www.york.ac.uk/phrc/PHRC%20A6-08%20Revised%20Final%20Report_9.8.10.pdf

The Public Health Research Consortium (PHRC) is funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Programme (DH PRP). Its research programme has been developed in consultation with the DH PRP and is informed by current priority needs identified by DH policy teams.

The Consortium brings together senior researchers from 11 UK institutions in a new integrated programme of research. This aims to strengthen the evidence base for interventions to improve health, with a strong emphasis on tackling socioeconomic inequalities in health. The PHRC is built around a set of research projects led by senior researchers with expertise in public health, social epidemiology, sociology, survey and evaluation research, social marketing and health economics.

The current programme (2005-11) focuses on major health determinants. Our programme includes projects on smoking, obesity and its associated risk factors, and, as an important wider determinant, the workplace. It also includes cross-cutting projects and projects to support the translation of evidence into policy and practice, and to apply learning from projects on our chosen themes of smoking, obesity and the workplace to other important determinants of health.

Full information can be found on our web site at http://www.york.ac.uk/phrc/ 

-- 
Sally Stephenson
Personal Assistant to Professor Hilary Graham
and secretary to the Department of Health Public Health Research Consortium,
Department of Health Sciences,
Area 4, Seebohm Rowntree Building,
University of York,
York, YO10 5DD
Tel:  01904 321934
Department of Health Public Health Research Consortium website: http//www.york.ac.uk/phrc/
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