Survey Indicates Fewer People in Beijing and Shanghai Intended to Give Cigarettes as Gifts after Seeing Mass Media Campaign
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Contact: Jorge Alday, Public Relations Manager
(Beijing, China) – China CDC and World Lung Foundation today announced they have completed a mass media campaign to educate the public on the harmful consequences of giving cigarettes as gifts to family, friends and colleagues. A post-campaign survey showed the number of people who reported they would buy cigarettes as gifts decreased from 45% to 24% in Beijing and from 23% to 12% in Guangzhou after airing the public service advertisement (Table 1).
The intercept survey of over 2,000 people across several cities revealed the decrease in cigarette gift giving could be attributed to the national ‘Giving Cigarettes is Giving Harm' advertising campaign. The survey also showed that after the mass media campaign, reported awareness of the risk of cardiovascular disease due to smoking increased from 29% to 60% among Beijing respondents, and over 66% of respondents from Guangzhou claimed they would persuade others to quit smoking after viewing the campaign (Table 2).
"Smoking leads to serious health
consequences such as lung cancer, stroke and
even death," said
Professor Yang Gonghuan, Deputy Director, China
CDC and Head of the
National Tobacco Control Office. "The public
should fully understand
these risks before they consider giving their
family and friends such a
dangerous product." Prof. Yang's concerns are
well grounded, as half of
the respondents think cigarettes are a common
gift, and they have very
limited knowledge of tobacco hazards (Table
3).
"We are delighted to see this campaign appears to have begun impacting the cigarette gift giving culture in some localities. Changing behaviour, however, is a long term process and the knowledge of the various health risks of smoking is still very low among the general public. As such, continuous communications are necessary to ultimately change behaviour for the long term," commented Peter Baldini, Chief Executive Officer, World Lung Foundation.
The "Giving Cigarettes is Giving
Harm" campaign was developed jointly by China
CDC, World Lung
Foundation and the World Health Organization
and aired nationally from
December 2008 to February 2009.
The campaign
consisted of a TV commercial broadcasted in
various cities via TV and
mobile media, and 200,000 posters of 3 designs
posted in all provinces
across the country. The TV commercial
alone has reached more than 258
million viewer times according to rating
results and estimated number
of public transport passengers.
Methodology
A pre-campaign baseline survey of 1,000
people was conducted in
Beijing, Guangzhou, and Tianjin via street
intercepts where respondents
were selected randomly in city centers with
high foot traffic. Campaign
evaluation street intercepts were conducted in
similar locations using
the same sampling method in Beijing, Guangzhou,
and Tianjin. Interviews
were conducted by local departments responsible
for tobacco control and
respondents were asked about their perception
of gift giving
cigarettes, their recall of the campaign's
message of giving harms, and
their subsequent attitudes toward cigarette
gift giving. Limitations in
the methodology include a relatively small
sample size for the given
populations and potential sampling error which
may under-represent
people who are homebound and those who do not
live or work in city
centers. Additional bias could be introduced by
interviewers who are
tobacco control advocates and may pass by
eligible but 'undesirable'
respondents.
About National Tobacco
Control Office, China CDC
The National Tobacco Control Office under China
CDC the professional
organization to conduct researches and provide
advice on tobacco
control in China. The organization is tasked to
prevent the spread of
tobacco epidemic in China through scientific
researches and robust
public education.
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Appendix
Table 1 – Less People Consider Giving
Cigarettes as Gifts
Table 2 – Creating Peer Support on
Anti-cigarette Gift-giving and
Quitting
Table 3 – Knowledge Level of
Specific Health Risks of Smoking Needs
Improvement
About World Lung Foundation
World Lung Foundation was established in response to the global epidemic of lung disease, which kills 10 million people each year. The organization improves global lung health by improving local capacity to conduct research, develop public policy and deliver public health education. The organization's areas of emphasis are tobacco control, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, asthma, and child lung health. For more information, please visit worldlungfoundation.org