School of Public Health, University of Adelaide Faculty of Sciences, Level 9, 57 North Terrace, Adelaide 5005, Australia.
School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5000, Australia.
Health Promot Int. 2022 Feb 17;37(1). doi: 10.1093/heapro/daab024.
Alcohol is a modifiable risk factor for cancer. Public awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer risk is poor; thus, alcohol consumers may be unknowingly putting themselves at increased risk of cancer. One way to raise awareness of alcohol-related cancer is through placing labels warning of cancer risk on alcoholic beverage containers; however, little is known about the impact of such labels. We conducted seven focus groups, comprising participants who self-identified as low-to-moderate alcohol consumers, to gauge public attitudes towards the labels and messages relating to alcohol-related cancer risk. Transcripts of discussions were coded to identify emergent themes. Participants expressed a negative response to the alcohol warning labels, and their talk worked to challenge the legitimacy of alcohol-related cancer messages, and the entities responsible for disseminating the information. These responses functioned to counter any implied recommendation for reduction in speakers' alcohol consumption. These findings illustrate how the general population make sense of information about health risks, using this knowledge to make decisions about personal behaviour. In combination with other public health initiatives, alcohol-warning labels have the potential to increase awareness of cancer risk and help in the fight against cancer, but any messaging will need to account for probable consumer resistance.
酒精是癌症的一个可改变的风险因素。公众对酒精与癌症风险之间联系的认识很差；因此，酒精消费者可能在不知不觉中使自己面临更高的癌症风险。提高人们对酒精相关癌症认识的一种方法是在酒精饮料容器上贴上警告癌症风险的标签；然而，对于这些标签的影响知之甚少。我们进行了七项焦点小组讨论，参与者自我认定为低至中度酒精消费者，以评估公众对与酒精相关的癌症风险标签和信息的态度。讨论记录被编码以确定出现的主题。参与者对酒精警告标签的反应是负面的，他们的言论质疑了酒精相关癌症信息的合法性，以及负责传播这些信息的实体。这些反应的作用是抵消对演讲者减少饮酒量的任何隐含建议。这些发现说明了普通民众如何利用有关健康风险的信息来做出关于个人行为的决定。结合其他公共卫生措施，酒精警告标签有可能提高对癌症风险的认识，并有助于抗击癌症，但任何信息传递都需要考虑到可能的消费者抵制。
