Geoffrey T. Fong: Designing Effective Warning Labels

Geoffrey T. Fong talks about What We Know About the Impact of Warning Labels: Review of Findings from the ITC Project and Recommendations for Designing Effective Warning Labels. LISTEN (16 min)

What We Know About the Impact of Warning Labels: Review of Findings from the ITC Project and Recommendations for Designing Effective Warning Labels

Geoffrey T. Fong, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, 200 University Ave West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada and David Hammond, PhD, Department of Health Studies and Gerontology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.

 

Warning labels constitute an important tobacco control policy under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Of the more than 120 countries that have ratified the FCTC, the great majority are obligated, under Article 11, to enhance their existing warning labels in the near future. The existence in the FCTC of a minimal requirement for warning labels (30% of the principal surfaces) and a recommended level (at least 50% of the principal surfaces with graphic images) calls for evidence that would help policymakers make decisions about the level of implementation that would be most desirable.

There have been few real world evaluation studies of the psychosocial and behavioral impact of warning labels. The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project) consists of a set of parallel national cohort surveys of representative samples of smokers in nine countries—Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, and China—all surveys being guided by commonalities in conceptual framework, research design, and survey measures. The ITC Project thus constitutes a foundation for rigorous evaluation of FCTC policies as implemented in participating countries.

This presentation will review the findings from the ITC Project on the impact of warning labels. These findings, together with the literature from health communication and social psychology, provide a set of principles that may help guide countries toward the design of effective warning labels. These principles will be discussed as well as evidence-based recommendations for the design of effective warning labels.

Web Page: www.itcproject.org

What We Know About the Impact of Warning Labels: Review of Findings from the ITC Project and Recommendations for Designing Effective Warning Labels

Geoffrey T. Fong, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, 200 University Ave West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada and David Hammond, PhD, Department of Health Studies and Gerontology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.

 

Warning labels constitute an important tobacco control policy under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Of the more than 120 countries that have ratified the FCTC, the great majority are obligated, under Article 11, to enhance their existing warning labels in the near future. The existence in the FCTC of a minimal requirement for warning labels (30% of the principal surfaces) and a recommended level (at least 50% of the principal surfaces with graphic images) calls for evidence that would help policymakers make decisions about the level of implementation that would be most desirable.

There have been few real world evaluation studies of the psychosocial and behavioral impact of warning labels. The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project) consists of a set of parallel national cohort surveys of representative samples of smokers in nine countries—Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, and China—all surveys being guided by commonalities in conceptual framework, research design, and survey measures. The ITC Project thus constitutes a foundation for rigorous evaluation of FCTC policies as implemented in participating countries.

This presentation will review the findings from the ITC Project on the impact of warning labels. These findings, together with the literature from health communication and social psychology, provide a set of principles that may help guide countries toward the design of effective warning labels. These principles will be discussed as well as evidence-based recommendations for the design of effective warning labels.

Web Page: www.itcproject.org