Health & Studies

Foundation Presents The Global State of Smoking

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World has released its Global State of Smoking Poll for 2019

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The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) has released its Global State of Smoking Poll for 2019. Last year, the FSFW conducted a comprehensive survey that explored the habits and perceptions of tobacco users. It hopes the poll’s findings will help health care professionals and researchers incorporate user perceptions into the development of future smoking cessation programs.

The poll looked at the current smoking behaviours and use of alternative nicotine products of 54,341 adults. It also assessed their beliefs and perceptions regarding the harmfulness and addictiveness of various nicotine products. The survey was conducted across seven countries.

The Global State of Smoking Poll 2019 follows a similar poll conducted by FSFW in 2017. It says the poll, “provides a benchmark for evaluating the success of international tobacco control efforts.”

“The survey reveals, among other things, that there are broad misperceptions about the health impacts of tobacco. For example, in six out of the seven countries, more than half of those surveyed incorrectly identified nicotine as the primary cause of tobacco-related cancer.”

A series of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted with current and former tobacco consumers and vapers in each country to help develop the questionnaire content. The quantitative survey was administered following the qualitative portion of the research.

Other findings include:

  • 75% of current smokers believed smoking is harmful to their health
  • More than 49% of smokers in these countries didn’t read warning labels on cigarette packages
  • In five countries, more than a third of smokers felt that health warning labels are exaggerated
  • 62% of Indian smokers holding believe warning labels don’t tell the truth
  • Smokers in higher-income countries have been most active in attempting to quit
  • Individuals reporting serious quit attempts were more common in Norway (83%), United States (75%) and United Kingdom (72%)
  • Fewer attempts were reported among smokers in India (50%), South Africa (39%), and Greece (37%)

Related:

  • FSFW’s Global State of Smoking poll – [link]

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Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV
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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.

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