THURSDAY, April 3 (HealthDay News) -- TV ads that promote
quitting smoking are more likely to have an impact on
better-educated smokers, while warnings about the dangers of
secondhand smoke have a similar effect on people of all educational
levels, says a University of Wisconsin study.
In 2002 and 2003, researchers surveyed 452 adult smokers of
different socioeconomic and educational levels about their recall
of quitting smoking and secondhand smoke ad campaigns. A year
later, the researchers checked on the respondents' smoking
status.
Of those who recalled seeing the ads, about 65 percent of
college-educated participants tried to quit in the following year,
compared with 30 percent of those with a high school education or
less, the study found.
However, there was no statistically significant difference
between the groups in abstinence from smoking after one year or in
their response to messages about secondhand smoke. The findings are
published in the May issue of the
American Journal of Public Health.
"Some media campaign messages appear less effective in promoting
quit attempts among less-education populations," wrote lead
researcher Jeff Niederdeppe, a post-doctoral fellow, and
colleagues.
Niederdeppe noted that about 7 percent of Americans with
graduate degrees are smokers, compared to 46 percent of those with
a GED.
Income may be a major factor when it comes to quitting smoking,
he suggested.
"Lower socioeconomic-status smokers may be more addicted and
work in places where smoking is less restricted. They also have
less access to abstinence aids such as medications and counseling,"
so seeing an anti-smoking ad may not be an effective motivator in
itself.
"We are not doing a good enough job of providing lower
socioeconomic smokers with resources to help them quit,"
Niederdeppe said.
More information
The American Cancer Society offers a
guide to quitting smoking.
