Conversations about cigarette health warning labels and smoking cessation attempts in Mexico.

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate how conversations about health warning labels (HWLs) influence attempts to quit smoking (QAs) and sustained attempts to quit (SQAs) among in Mexican adult who smoke.

Materials and methods: Data were analyzed from a cohort of 2 164 participants surveyed every four months between November 2018 and March 2021. Multinomial models regressed the frequency of talking about HWLs on sociodemographics and smoking-related variables. Generalized Estimating Equations assessed whether the effect of HWL talking frequency on QAs and, separately, SQAs at follow-up was mediated by the topic of conversation.

Results: The majority reported having talked about HWLs (63.7%), regarding the harms of tobacco (73.3%), cessation benefits (58.5%), and lack of credibility/utility of HWLs (9.8%). At follow-up, 42.0% reported an QAs and 20.7% an SQAs. Conversations about HWLs were more frequent among younger participants, those with a university education, those who had recently attempted to quit smoking, and those intending to quit. Talking about HWLs was associated with a higher frequency of QAs and SQAs, mediated equally by discussions about cessation benefits and tobacco harms.

Conclusion: Conversation topics around HWL are mesassociated with more smoking cessation attempts. Mexican HWLs focus primarily on harms, more research is needed to evaluate the optimal mix of content.