The Impact of Cigarette Type on Consumers' Perception of Health Risks of Smoking

Background: Smoking prevalence in Singapore has increased from 12.6 % in 2006 to 14.3% in 2011 despite restrictions on tobacco advertising and promotion act, largely due to the strategies of the tobacco industry such as cigarette packaging suggesting lower tar content to target the young and the health conscious. Objectives: To review the perception of health risks of different types of cigarettes across smoking status, age-group and gender, and to determine if smokers perceive differences in health risks based on the taste of cigarettes alone. Method: 240 smokers and 240 non-smokers were presented with cigarette boxes a pair each time and were asked a series of questions on perception of tar content, taste and perceived health risk. Participants who identified themselves as smokers were blindfolded and asked to take 2 puffs of each cigarette type and asked to rate for 'Presence of tar', 'Smoothness of taste' and 'Health risk'. Results: A significant majority of the participants selected 'regular' cigarettes as delivering more tar than 'light' and 'menthol' cigarettes, while 'lights' and 'menthol' cigarettes were perceived as smoother-tasting and being able to reduce health risks. Non-smokers were more susceptible to perceive 'lights' cigarettes as a 'healthier' choice, compared to smokers, but not females or adolescents. Smokers, based on taste alone, rated regular cigarettes to be higher in health risks compared to both 'lights' and 'menthol' cigarettes, which were similarly rated. Discussion: The perception of health risks across different types of cigarettes are affected by the deceptive descriptors on the packaging, but the local increase in prevalence of youth and female smoking cannot be explained by their susceptibility to packaging influences. Taste of cigarettes seems to affect smokers' perception of health-risks as well; hence bans on deceptive descriptors on cigarette packaging may not totally eliminate differences in perception of health risks of different types of cigarettes.