ISSN: 2639-2038
Authors: Jimenez NG*, Sanchez LB and Rodriguez LV
Objective: To assess the quality and effectiveness of visual/printed health education material on cigarette packs for the Colombian anti-smoking campaigns. Methods: Evaluative study, with a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional approach; 171 smokers assessed 21 warning images found on packs of cigarettes used in Colombia through an instrument of the Pan American Health Organization-PAHO. This study analyzed the arithmetic means for continuous and discontinuous variables, as well as proportions for the nominal or categorical variables with their corresponding confidence intervals (CI). In the analytical phase, a Pearson's Chi-Square parametric test was performed; A statistical significance of p <0.05 was accepted. Results: The smokers assessed that the images need reforms, indicating that the advertisement partially fulfills its objective as health education material. The 21 images are assessed as unattractive, accepted, and understood and they do not persuade people to stop smoking. There is a statistical association between the criterion of acceptance of the images and the gender of the participants in the study (p=0.05), as well as the criterion of induction to action of the images and the education level of the population intervened (p=0.03). Conclusion: Reforms to the educational material that is shown on cigarette packs are suggested; in such a way that they respond to the guidelines defined at an international level as well as achieving the objective of becoming an effective method in order to spread public health messages in terms of risk perception and real behavioral changes towards cigarette consumption.
Keywords: Warnings; Product Labeling; Health Policy; Effectiveness
