BinDhim Nasser F, Althumiri Nora A, Basyouni Mada H, Almubark Rasha A, Alkhamaali Zaied, Banjar Weam, Zamakhshary Mohammed, AlKattan Khaled M
Sharik Association for Health Research, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
JMIR Form Res. 2021 May 14;5(5):e24446. doi: 10.2196/24446.
Saudi Arabia implemented a plain tobacco packaging regulation, one of the World Health Organization's recommended initiatives to help reduce smoking rates, in August 2019. A few weeks after implementation, a large number of smokers complained via various media channels, especially social media (eg, Twitter), that an extreme change in cigarette taste had occurred, frequency of coughing had increased, and for some, shortness of breath had led to hospitalization.
The main objective is to determine whether smokers blinded to cigarette branding report differences in taste between branded and unbranded cigarettes. The secondary objective is to observe the frequency of immediate cough or shortness of breath.
This study employed a within-person, randomized crossover design that recruited current smokers 18 years and older who were cleared upon physical assessment before the experiment. Participants received 6 sequences of different random exposures (3 puffs) to 3 plain-packaged cigarettes (2 from their favorite brand and 1 from another brand as a control) and 3 branded cigarettes (2 from the favorite brand and 1 from another brand as a control). Participants wore virtual reality goggles accompanied by special software to alter visual reality and gloves to alter the touch sensation.
This study recruited 18 participants, measured at 6 time points, to produce 108 experiments. Participants were not able to identify the correct type of cigarettes (plain or branded, estimate of fixed effect=-0.01, P=.79). Moreover, there were no differences in the ability of the participants to identify their favorite brand (t=-0.63, mean 0.47, P=.53). In terms of immediate coughing, out of the 108 experiments, 1 episode of short coughing was observed, which was attributed to the branded cigarette, not the plain-packaged cigarette.
After controlling the visual and touch sensations, participants were not able to differentiate between branded and plain-packaged cigarettes in terms of taste or inducing immediate shortness of breath or cough. Interestingly, participants were not able to identify their favorite brand.
沙特阿拉伯于2019年8月实施了烟草平装规定，这是世界卫生组织推荐的有助于降低吸烟率的举措之一。实施几周后，大量吸烟者通过各种媒体渠道，尤其是社交媒体（如推特）抱怨称，香烟味道发生了极大变化，咳嗽频率增加，部分人因呼吸急促而住院。
主要目的是确定对香烟品牌不知情的吸烟者是否能报告出品牌香烟和无品牌香烟在味道上的差异。次要目的是观察即时咳嗽或呼吸急促的频率。
本研究采用个体内随机交叉设计，招募18岁及以上的当前吸烟者，这些吸烟者在实验前经身体评估合格。参与者接受6组不同的随机暴露（每次3口），分别是3支无品牌香烟（2支来自其最喜欢的品牌，1支来自另一个品牌作为对照）和3支品牌香烟（2支来自最喜欢的品牌，1支来自另一个品牌作为对照）。参与者佩戴虚拟现实护目镜并配有特殊软件以改变视觉体验，同时佩戴手套以改变触觉感受。
本研究招募了18名参与者，在6个时间点进行测量，共产生108次实验。参与者无法识别正确的香烟类型（无品牌或有品牌，固定效应估计值=-0.01，P=0.79）。此外，参与者识别其最喜欢品牌的能力没有差异（t=-0.63，均值0.47，P=0.53）。在即时咳嗽方面，在108次实验中，观察到1次短暂咳嗽发作，这归因于品牌香烟，而非无品牌香烟。
在控制视觉和触觉感受后，参与者在味道、引发即时呼吸急促或咳嗽方面无法区分品牌香烟和无品牌香烟。有趣的是，参与者无法识别他们最喜欢的品牌。
