Health advocates have been working to educate the public about the harms of smoking for more than 50 years. Recently, smoking rates have reduced more slowly among people with low incomes.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate what low-income smokers may have learned from a lifetime of exposure to public health education and how this knowledge may have translated into smoking-related behaviors.
Results:
All the participants were aware of smoking-related harms to health but negative experiences with quitting, cessation medications, and healthcare professionals contributed to avoiding or rejecting educational messages. Participants’ perceptions of hypocritical societal tobacco control policies also led some to believe that the harms of tobacco use were exaggerated, or were being used to control or manipulate them. This contributed to a distrust of the government, public health advocates, and healthcare providers.
Jonathan Foulds et al. – American Journal of Health Behavior – Outlet – 2019-07-01.
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