International Packaging Study

The International Cigarette Packaging Study is an extension of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Project, focusing on the area of area of tobacco packaging and labelling. The emphasis of the project is on building the evidence for novel policies in low, middle, and high income countries.

The study comprises parallel experimental studies conducted in seven “high-burden” ITC countries:  China, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, Republic of Korea, the United States, and Germany.  The overall study consists of two studies:

Study 1. To evaluate health warnings on tobacco packages among youth and adults, including various types of warnings (text-only, graphic, testimonial, etc.)

Study 2. To examine consumer perceptions of cigarette packaging design among youth and adults, including the impact of brand descriptors (e.g., light, mild, smooth, slims), brand imagery (e.g., colors and package design), and the potential impact of “plain” or standardized packaging.

To answer these research questions, two experimental studies were conducted in each country. A mix of face-to-face and online survey modalities were used, depending on internet usage rates in each country (see below). In each study, participants were presented with images of either health warnings or cigarette packages, and asked to provide their opinions on a variety of measures. Within each country, target sample sizes were 500 adult smokers (all males in Asian countries; mix of males and females in North America and Europe) and 500 youth (250 male and 250 female in all countries) for each of study 1 and study 2.

Click on the links below to see project documentation and publications:

International Cigarette Packaging Study Summary Technical Report (No appendices)
International Cigarette Packaging Study Summary Technical Report (With all appendices) *Large file

PUBLICATIONS

Reid JL, Mutti-Packer S, Gupta PC, Li Q, Jiang Y, Nargis N, Hussain AKMG, Hammond D. Influence of health warnings on beliefs about the health effects of cigarette smoking, in the context of an experimental study in four Asian countries. International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health 2017; 14(8): 868. doi:10.3390/ijerph14080868.

Mutti S, Hammond D, Reid JL, White CM, Thrasher JF. Perceptions of branded and plain cigarette packaging among Mexican youth. Health Promotion International 2017; 32(4):650-659. doi: 10.1093/heapro/dav117. [Epub 2016 Jan 29].

Huang LL, Thrasher JF, Reid JL, Hammond D. Predictive and external validity of a pre-market study to determine the most effective pictorial health warning label content for cigarette packages. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 2016; 18 (5):1376-1381.

Mutti S, Hammond D, Reid JL, Thrasher JF. The efficacy of cigarette warning labels on health beliefs in the United States and Mexico. Journal of Health Communication 2013; 18(10); 1180-92.

Hammond D, Reid JL, Driezen P, Boudreau C. Pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs in the United States: An experimental evaluation of the proposed FDA warnings. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 2013; 15(1): 93-102.

Hammond D, Thrasher J, Reid JL, Driezen P, Boudreau C, Arillo-Santillan E, on behalf of the International Tobacco Packaging Study. Percieved effectiveness of pictorial health warnings among Mexico youth and adults: A population-level intervention with potential to reduce tocacco-related inequities. Cancer Causes & Control 2012; 23(1): 57-67. doi: 10.1007/s10552-012-9902-4.

Related study on smokeless tobacco health warnings

Mutti-Packer S, Reid JL, Thrasher JF, Romer D, Fong GT, Gupta PC, Pednekar MS, Nargis N, Hammond D. The role of negative affect and message credibility in perceived effectiveness of smokeless tobacco health warning labels in Navi Mumbai, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh: A moderated-mediation analysis. Addictive Behaviors 2017; 73:22-29.

Mutti S, Reid JL, Gupta PC, Pednekar MS, Dhumal GG, Nargis N, Hussain G, Hammond D. Perceived effectiveness of text and pictorial health warnings for smokeless tobacco packages in Navi Mumbai, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh: Findings from an experimental study. Tobacco Control 2016; 25; 437-443. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2015-052315. [Epub 2015 Jul 22].

Mutti S, Reid JL, Gupta PC, Pednekar MS, Dhumal G, Nargis N, Ghulam Hussain AKM, Hammond D. Patterns of use and perceptions of harm of smokeless tobacco in Navi Mumbai, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Indian Journal of Community Medicine 2016; 41(4): 280-287. doi: 10.4103/0970-0218.193337.

COUNTRIES

The study comprises seven parallel studies in countries with a high burden of tobacco use:  China, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, Republic of Korea, the United States, and Germany.

Click on the country links below for more information.

India flag Mexico flag Germany flag China flag US Flag South Korea flag Bangladesh flag

 

 

RESEARCH TEAM

  • David Hammond, PhD, School of Public Health & Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Canada
  • Geoffrey T. Fong, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Canada
  • Mark Zanna, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Canada
  • Melanie Wakefield, PhD, Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria, Australia
  • Ron Borland, PhD, Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria, Australia
  • James F. Thrasher, PhD,  Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, United States, and Departamento de Investigaciones sobre Tabaco, Centro de Investigación en Salud Poblacional, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP), Mexico
  • Maansi Bansal-Travers, PhD, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, United States
  • Ernesto Sebrie, PhD, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, United States
  • K. Michael Cummings, PhD, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, United States

Partner Organizations

Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Códice Comunicación Diálogo y Conciencia S.C.
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Tobacco Control Office
Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health
University of Dhaka