Nicotine - Misperceptions, Misinformation, or Disinformation
Multi-National
- We analyzed data from 1,315 current daily smokers (10+ cigarettes per day) who were recruited at Wave 1 (2016), and who reported making a quit attempt by Wave 2 (2018) of the International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States.
- Consistent with past studies,our findings confirm that harm perceptions influence nicotine product use, with accurate perceptions associated with greater likelihood of use as a smoking cessation aid, whereas inaccurate perceptions appear to deter their use for this purpose.
- The review only identified studies exploring the attitudes of socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers towards NCNP (non-combustible nicotine products) for harm reduction or cessation purposes (i.e. we did not identify any relevant studies of more advantaged socioeconomic groups).
- Using a lines-of-argument meta-ethnographic approach, we identified a predominantly pessimistic attitude to NCNP for harm reduction or cessation of smoking due to:
- wider circumstances of socioeconomic disadvantage;
- lack of a perceived advantage of alternative products over smoking;
- and a perceived lack of information about relative harms of NCNP compared to smoking.
Australia
See Also
- Multi-National > 2022 > Do smokers' perceptions of the harmfulness of nicotine replacement therapy and nicotine vaping products as compared to cigarettes influence their use as an aid for smoking cessation? Findings from the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys
Canada
See Also
- Multi-National > 2022 > Do smokers' perceptions of the harmfulness of nicotine replacement therapy and nicotine vaping products as compared to cigarettes influence their use as an aid for smoking cessation? Findings from the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys
Poland
- Approximately half of the respondents believed they [HTPs] are safer than traditional cigarettes and almost 1/4 believed they are safer than e-cigarettes.
- Among the respondents, 57.9% declared, that e-cigarette use causes serious diseases, with significant differences between smokers and non-smokers (60.4% vs. 49.1%, p = 0.01). Over a quarter of respondents (27.9%) did not know whether e-cigarette use causes disease. Lung cancer was the most common (65.8%) health effect of e-cigarette use indicated by the respondents. More than half of respondents believed that e-cigarette use causes stroke (54.4%) or myocardial infarction (59.4%), wherein non-smokers compared to smokers (p < 0.001) more often declared that e-cigarette use causes cardiovascular diseases.
- Among the respondents, 70% declared that e-cigarettes are as harmful as traditional cigarettes, wherein smokers compared to non-smokers more often declared that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes (28.6% vs. 19.5%; p = 0.01). There were no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) between smokers and non-smokers in the perception of the harmfulness of heated tobacco products. One-fourth of the respondents declared that smokeless tobacco is less harmful than traditional cigarettes with significant differences between smokers (32.3%) and non-smokers (22.9%; p = 0.01).
- The linear regression analysis indicated that relative to women, men consider slim cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes to be more harmful than traditional cigarettes (p < 0.05).
- The smokers of traditional cigarettes reported menthol cigarettes to be less harmful than traditional cigarettes, relative to the non-smokers (p = 0.05).
- The smokers of traditional cigarettes reported more harmfulness (compared to traditional cigarettes) in menthol, slim cigarettes, and e-cigarettes comparing to the non-smokers (p ≤ 0.03).
United Kingdom or any countries in the UK
See Also
- Multi-National > 2022 > Do smokers' perceptions of the harmfulness of nicotine replacement therapy and nicotine vaping products as compared to cigarettes influence their use as an aid for smoking cessation? Findings from the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys
United States
See Also
- Multi-National > 2022 > Do smokers' perceptions of the harmfulness of nicotine replacement therapy and nicotine vaping products as compared to cigarettes influence their use as an aid for smoking cessation? Findings from the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys
- About 61.2% of smokers believe nicotine causes cancer or don't know.
- High perceived threat of tobacco may be overgeneralized to nicotine. High prevalence of the misperception among Non-Hispanic Black and low-income smokers is concerning, considering existing health disparities. Messaging should attempt to correct the misperception that nicotine causes cancer.
Unknown Nation
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Keywords and abbreviations
Harm, harms, harm perception, harm perceptions, misperception, misperceptions, information, misinformation, disinformation, NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy, vaping, smoking, chew, snew, HTP (Heated Tobacco Product), HNB (Heat not Burn), NVp (Nicotine vapor product), ENDS (Electronic Nicotine Delivery System), e-cig, e-cigarette, cigarette, smoker, vaper, NCNP (non-combustible nicotine products), SES (smoking by socioeconomic status)