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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Niranjana Mani, MA, Division of Health Policy and Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1747 W Roosevelt Road, Room 558, Chicago, IL 60608, 708-646-4419, nmani1@uic.edu

Prior research shows important gender differences in smoking behavior including increased female smoking rates, slower declines in female quitting rates compared to male smokers, and differential product preference among male and female smokers. However little research has been done to understand how men and women may differ in their intermediate outcomes, such as perceptions about risks and health worries associated with tobacco use. This study examines potential differences in risk perceptions and health beliefs among men and women and changes in these health beliefs over time, along with their impact on cessation behavior, using data gathered via the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Survey (ITCPES), a random digit dialed telephone survey of over 9000 adult smokers from United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia. The ITCPES is a prospective cohort study designed to evaluate the psycho-social and behavioural impact of key-national level tobacco-control policies enacted over a period of four years (2002-2006). Policy domains relevant to this study include tobacco advertising and promotions and restrictions on use of “light/mild” descriptors of tobacco products. Specifically, hypotheses to be tested include whether or not female smokers display differing receptivity to tobacco advertising/promotions compared to male smokers; whether there is an association between receptivity to tobacco advertising and risk perceptions related to tobacco use, and if so, is it different among male and female smokers; and is there an association between risk perceptions and intentions to quit smoking, and if so, is this association stronger in female versus male smokers.

Learning Objectives:

• 1) Assess how male and female smokers differ with respect to intermediate outcomes such as risk perceptions and health beliefs.
• 2) Evaluate how current tobacco control policies have a differential impact by gender on changing risk perceptions/beliefs about smoking
• 3) Identify how policies could be made more gender-specific and relevant, in order to reduce rates of female smoking.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered