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Anti-smoking ads increase smoking cessation attempts

Rates of smoking cessation attempts increased in markets where the number of anti-smoking advertisements increased, according to recent research.

“Consistent with the results of a 2012 longitudinal cohort trial, these findings from a randomization of markets in 2013 indicate the effectiveness of media campaigns for rapidly increasing quit attempts among smokers and engaging non-smokers,” Tim McAfee, MD, MPH, from the office on smoking and health at the CDC, and colleagues wrote.

McAfee and colleagues analyzed results from the Tips From Former Smokers 2013 marketing campaign — in which 67 (of 190) local markets in the United States were randomly selected — during a 3-month period, according to the abstract. Higher dose markets received three times the media buys of standard markets. Researchers also collected results from online surveys that asked questions about smoking ad campaigns from 5,733 smokers and 2,843 non-smokers in high-dose and standard markets.

The researchers found that, within high-dose markets, 87.2% of smoking participants and 83.9% of non-smoking participants who completed the online survey recalled a television campaign, whereas 75% of smokers and 73.9% of non-smokers in standard groups recalled a television campaign, according to the abstract. Quit attempts in high-dose markets were 11% higher than in standard markets (38.8% vs. 34.9%; p < 0.04), with higher rates observed among black populations (50.9% vs. 31.8% p < 0.01), participants who had a chronic health condition, those who did not have a mental health condition and among participants with some college education.

McAfee and colleagues noted that within higher-dose markets, 43.1% of non-smoker participants said they were more likely to talk with friends or family about the dangers of smoking compared with 35.7% of non-smokers in standard markets. Further, these non-smokers in high-dose markets had better knowledge of the dangers of smoking-related diseases compared with non-smoking participants in standard markets, according to the abstract. – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC funded this study.