Yaddanapalli Suresh Chand, Ravoori Srinivas, Bommireddy Vikram Simha, Pachava Srinivas
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Indian J Psychiatry. 2019 Jan-Feb;61(1):65-69. doi: 10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_65_18.
Tobacco use is a major global public health threat for all countries and no form of tobacco use is safe. Pictorial warnings covering 40% area of tobacco products are made mandatory from May 31, 2009 in India. The present study was aimed to investigate the awareness and attitude toward pictorial warnings on tobacco products among age 15 years and above population in field-practice area.
A total of 1064 individuals were selected by systematic random sampling. A model containing the pictorial warnings were shown to the study subjects, and data were collected by semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS 20 and statistical tests used were Chi-square test. Significance level set at ≤ 0.05.
Of the 1064 individuals participated in the study, 53.9% were male and the mean age of the study population was 31.24 ± 5.8. Nearly 45.8% reported using tobacco in some form and all of them were males. 51.3% of both males and females reported that they never came across antitobacco messages (pictorial warnings). 71.2% believed that the size and position of pictorial warnings on tobacco products were not sufficient to understand the harmful effects of tobacco. There was statistically significant difference between different age groups in their responses to the aforementioned questions.
The results of present study demonstrate that the need for pictorial warnings on tobacco products to be more clear and explanatory since there is little point in having pictorial warnings when the prime purpose of having them is not being served.
烟草使用是全球所有国家面临的重大公共卫生威胁，任何形式的烟草使用都不安全。自2009年5月31日起，印度强制要求烟草制品包装上的图片警示覆盖面积达到40%。本研究旨在调查实地实践地区15岁及以上人群对烟草制品图片警示的认知和态度。
通过系统随机抽样选取了1064名个体。向研究对象展示包含图片警示的模型，并通过半结构化问卷收集数据。使用SPSS 20对数据进行分析，采用的统计检验为卡方检验。显著性水平设定为≤0.05。
参与研究的1064名个体中，53.9%为男性，研究人群的平均年龄为31.24±5.8岁。近45.8%的人报告以某种形式使用烟草，且均为男性。51.3%的男性和女性报告称他们从未接触过反烟草信息（图片警示）。71.2%的人认为烟草制品上图片警示的大小和位置不足以让人理解烟草的有害影响。不同年龄组对上述问题的回答存在统计学显著差异。
本研究结果表明，烟草制品图片警示需要更加清晰且具有解释性，因为如果设置图片警示的主要目的无法实现，那么设置图片警示就毫无意义。
