Effects of health publicity on prevalence of smoking

BMJ 1994;309:1441 (26 November)

Letters

Effects of health publicity on prevalence of smoking

EDITOR,--Joy Townsend and colleagues' study of the effects ofprice and health publicity on cigarette smoking used a broaddefinition of publicity, which may lead to misunderstandings.¹The definition was, in effect, a measure of "everything elseexcept price"--which, as the authors acknowledge, comprisesa much wider range of influences than publicity alone.

The authors found that health publicity, as they defined it,had had relatively less influence on the smoking habits of moredisadvantaged socioeconomic groups, so adding to inequality.The effect of mass communications--that is, health publicityas it is usually defined--seems, however, to depend on the mediumused. For example, studies of rates of stopping smoking between1950 and 1980 in the United States suggest that health scaresin the 1950s, which were largely carried by the print media,had relatively little influence on the prevalence of smokingin more deprived groups relative to the population as a whole.These groups were much more responsive, however, to later publicityin the electronic media--especially the "fairness doctrine"antismoking campaign on television between 1967 and 1970.² Smokersin all social classes responded equally to Sydney's "quit forlife" campaign on television in 1983.³

Television, which is generally watched more by members of socialclasses C, D, and E, is therefore a potentially class free mediumfor health promotion in comparison with the print media, thoughthese probably have a correspondingly greater influence on decisionmakers.

Donald Reid

Director, Association for Public Health, London WC1H 9TX.

Townsend J, Roderick P, Cooper J. Cigarette smoking by socioeconomic group, sex, and age: effects of price, income, and health publicity. BMJ 1994;309:923-7. (8 October.) [Abstract/Free Full Text]
Shopland DR, Burns DM, Samet JM, Gritz ER, eds. Strategies to control tobacco use in the US: a blueprint for public health action in the 1990s. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute, 1991. (NIH publication No 92-3316.)
Macaskill P, Pierce JP, Simpson JM, Lyle DM. Mass media-led anti-smoking campaign can remove the education gap in quitting behavior. Am J Public Health 1992;82:96-8. [Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Cigarette smoking by socioeconomic group, sex, and age: effects of price, income, and health publicity: J Townsend, P Roderick, and J Cooper
BMJ 1994 309: 923-927. [Abstract] [Full Text]