For many years, written forms of communication have attempted to influence health behavior. Various forms of government-mandated warning labels have been on American cigarette packages since 1965 and on English cigarette packages since 1991. To date, most of the completed research involving cigarette package warning labels has focused on general descriptions of the labels and the effectiveness of the messages in curbing tobacco use among current smokers and preventing tobacco use among potential smokers.
Because the content of a message (in this study the warning label) can influence a person's attitude and subjective norm (Theory of Reasoned Action, Fishbein, Ajzen, 1975) the purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the content of warning label messages on cigarette packages from the United States and England.
The non-experimental design used in this study was a cross-sectional, descriptive analysis. An original instrument was used to collect the data. The instrument was deemed content valid and its reliability was established through inter-rater reliability.
Preliminary results from the analysis indicate clear differences in the content of labels from the United States and England. Despite these content differences, smoking rates among Americans and British are relatively similar. Based upon these findings, content of warning labels does not appear to be as influential as theory suggests. This poster will display cigarette packages from the United State and England, as well as smoking rates in both countries. The authors look forward to discussing the findings of this study and the potential for future study with conference participants.