TY - JOUR
T1 - Culturally specific health-related features on cigarette packs sold in China
AU - Cui, Yuxian
AU - Dai, Zheng
AU - Cohen, Joanna E.
AU - Rosas, Scott
AU - Clegg Smith, Katherine
AU - Welding, Kevin
AU - Czaplicki, Lauren
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is funded by Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Background: China is the country with the highest burden of tobacco-caused disease. We characterised the extent to which cigarette pack marketing features (eg, imagery, text, pack color) could potentially mislead consumers by suggesting products are healthy. Methods: We used two methods: group concept mapping and content analysis. First, we used a group concept mapping approach to generate and sort Chinese consumer responses to an open-ended prompt asking what marketing features suggest a product is 'healthy' or 'good for you'. Second, based on the concept mapping results, we developed a codebook of health-related features on cigarette packs that were relevant to the unique cultural context of product marketing in China. Two trained coders who were native Chinese speakers double-coded a sample of 1023 cigarette packs purchased in 2013 (wave 1) and 2017 (wave 2). We examined differences in the presence of features overall and over time. Results: Overall, 83.5% (n=854) of Chinese cigarette packs in our sample contained at least one 'healthy' or 'good for you' feature, and the presence of health-related features on packs remained constant between wave 1 (83.5%, n=354) and wave 2 (83.5%, n=500; p=1.00). Across both waves, the most common categories of culturally specific health features present related to recycling symbols, rare animal imagery, bright colours (eg, bright yellow) and botanical imagery (eg, bamboo, mint). Conclusion: Health-related features on cigarette packs sold in China are common. Enhanced policies to address tobacco packaging, labelling and branding could support and facilitate a reduction in the high tobacco burden in China.
AB - Background: China is the country with the highest burden of tobacco-caused disease. We characterised the extent to which cigarette pack marketing features (eg, imagery, text, pack color) could potentially mislead consumers by suggesting products are healthy. Methods: We used two methods: group concept mapping and content analysis. First, we used a group concept mapping approach to generate and sort Chinese consumer responses to an open-ended prompt asking what marketing features suggest a product is 'healthy' or 'good for you'. Second, based on the concept mapping results, we developed a codebook of health-related features on cigarette packs that were relevant to the unique cultural context of product marketing in China. Two trained coders who were native Chinese speakers double-coded a sample of 1023 cigarette packs purchased in 2013 (wave 1) and 2017 (wave 2). We examined differences in the presence of features overall and over time. Results: Overall, 83.5% (n=854) of Chinese cigarette packs in our sample contained at least one 'healthy' or 'good for you' feature, and the presence of health-related features on packs remained constant between wave 1 (83.5%, n=354) and wave 2 (83.5%, n=500; p=1.00). Across both waves, the most common categories of culturally specific health features present related to recycling symbols, rare animal imagery, bright colours (eg, bright yellow) and botanical imagery (eg, bamboo, mint). Conclusion: Health-related features on cigarette packs sold in China are common. Enhanced policies to address tobacco packaging, labelling and branding could support and facilitate a reduction in the high tobacco burden in China.
KW - global health
KW - low/middle income country
KW - packaging and labelling
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U2 - 10.1136/tc-2022-057527
DO - 10.1136/tc-2022-057527
M3 - Article
C2 - 36008126
AN - SCOPUS:85137402408
SN - 0964-4563
JO - Tobacco control
JF - Tobacco control
ER -