Are the Media Enabled Anti-tobacco Campaigns Effective? A Pilot Study
Published: November 1, 2018 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2018/35140.12308
Sagar S Bhat, Abhishek Bhadranna, Shesha R Prasad, Srinivasa Gopala Rao, Anuradha Pai
1. 1st Year MDS, Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics, SDM College of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Dharwad, Karnataka, India.
2. Chief Clinician, Consultant and Oral Pathologist, Adi’s Dentalaya, Rajaji Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
3. Senior Lecturer, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, The Oxford Dental College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
4. Retired Professor Emeritus and Head, Department of Pathology, The Oxford Dental College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
5. Professor and Head, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, The Oxford Dental College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Correspondence
Dr. Sagar S Bhat,
699, Sri Neelambike, 66th Cross, 1st Stage, Kumaraswamy Layout, Bengaluru-560078, Karnataka, India.
E-mail: sagarbhat1994@yahoo.co.in
Introduction: Globally, tobacco is a major factor for the cause of increased morbidity and mortality rates due to oral carcinoma. Despite the efforts of Government of India on anti-tobacco advertisements and campaigns, there is an increase in the number of consumers whereas the percentage who have attempted to quit the habit stands at a mere 3%-5%.
Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of media enabled Government of India initiated anti-tobacco and anti-smoking advertisement and campaigns and understand behavioural/psychological response among tobacco users and non-users towards such campaigns.
Materials and Methods: This was a questionnaire-based study. A total of randomly selected general public, 250 young adults in the age group of 18 to 25 years, 158-tobacco users and 92-non-tobacco users, in South Bengaluru, India was interviewed on one to one basis in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data on basic personal details, specific questions related to Government of India initiated anti-tobacco advertisements, and psychological tests namely Sentence completion test, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and Inkblot test were used to check the responses among tobacco and anti-tobacco users. The SPSS version 22.0 software IBM, Corp was used to do the descriptive statistical analysis and the level of significance was set at p<0.05.
Results: Of the overall 250 participants, 63.2% were tobacco product users and 36.8% were non-tobacco users. All 100% participants watched the Government of India initiated anti-tobacco and anti-smoking campaigns. Among overall subjects 49% gave up watching the advertisements due to fear or monotony, 23% of them reduced watching, and 28% felt like giving up the use. Among tobacco users, 48.73% discontinued the habit after watching the advertisements and 51.27% continued with the habit. The Government of India initiated anti-tobacco advertisements were ineffective in 65.19% of the tobacco users. The non-tobacco user group gave a favourable response in Sentence Completion Test and Rorschach Inkblot Test. There was no significant difference in the response seen in the TAT. Chi-Square test analysis was applied to determine the statistical significance between the psychological tests and the effectiveness of Government of India initiated anti-tobacco advertisements among tobacco and non-tobacco users.
Conclusion: It was observed that the Government of India initiated anti-tobacco and anti-smoking advertisements had more favourable response among the non-tobacco users whereas, with the current tobacco users, it did not have the desired impact. Psychological tests like TAT was statistically significant with respect to the effectiveness of advertisements (p<0.05) in non-tobacco users.
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