title: College student reactions to health warning labels: sociodemographic and psychosocial factors related to perceived effectiveness of different approaches.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine factors associated with perceiving different types of pictorial cigarette health warning labels as most effective in motivating smokers to quit or preventing smoking initiation among college students.
  
  
  METHODS
  We administered an online survey to 24,055 students attending six Southeast colleges in Fall, 2010. We obtained complete data for the current analyses from 2600.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Current smoking prevalence was 23.5%. The largest majority (78.6%) consistently rated gruesome images as most effective, 19.5% rated testimonial images as most effective, and only a small proportion rated either standard (1.6%) or human suffering images (0.3%) as most effective. Subsequent analyses focused on differences between those endorsing gruesome images or testimonials as most effective. Factors related to ranking testimonials versus gruesome images as most effective included being female (p<0.01), White (p<0.01), and nonsmokers (p=0.04), lower perceived smoking prevalence (p<0.01), and greater receptivity to laws/restrictions around smoking (p<0.01) and tobacco marketing (p=0.01). Among smokers, factors related to ranking testimonials as most effective versus gruesome images included being female (p=0.03), being White (p=0.03), higher autonomous motivation (p=0.03), and greater extrinsic self-efficacy (p=0.02).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Understanding factors related to perceived effectiveness of different pictorial warnings among subpopulations should inform health warning labels released by the FDA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Emory University School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. cjberg@emory.edu
authors.forename: Carla J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.forename: James F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Thrasher
authors.forename: J Lee
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Westmaas
authors.forename: Taneisha
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.forename: Erika A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Pinsker
authors.forename: Jasjit S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ahluwalia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011356:Product Labeling / Q000379:methods*; D011640:Public Policy; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D015144:Southeastern United States; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult