Adolescent's Attitudes Towards Health Warning Message on Cigarette Packs

A total of 190 secondary four male school students from three schools in Kota Bharu were surveyed on their smoking habits and their attitudes towards the health warning messages on cigarette packs. There were 57 (30.0%) students who were current smokers, 45 (23.7%) students who were ex-smokers and 88 (46.3%) students who have never smoked cigarettes. Nearly all current and ex-smokers (95.1%) as well as non-smokers (94.3%) knew the wording of the health warning message currently displayed on cigarette packs. Almost all the students (95.3%) also knew where the warning message was placed. There were more ex-smokers and non-smokers (70.5%) compared to current smokers (50.0%) who felt that there should be different health warning messages and each should be displayed concurrently on different cigarette packs. The students felt that the current health message was not effective to motivate smokers to quit (score=2.25). Alternative messages which the students felt may be more effective were 'Smoking is dangerous for pregnancy' (score = 3.3), 'Cigarette smoke is dangerous for your child' (score=3.11) and 'Smoking can kill you' (score=3.08). The current health message "Smoking is dangerous for your health' is eighth with a score of only 2.64. The students felt that the least effective message was 'Cigarettes are drugs' (score=2.22). Most of the students (80.0%) felt that the health warning message should be placed at the front instead of on the side of the cigarette pack to be more effective.