Abstract

Introduction: Little research exists on the sociodemographic characteristics of menthol and flavoured cigarette (MFC) smokers in Europe. This study assessed the proportion of MFC smokers in Europe, their sociodemographic characteristics, and their attitudes towards tobacco control measures. Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected in 2016 among 10760 adult current smokers from 8 European countries (ITC Europe Project and EUREST-PLUS). Smokers of menthol, other flavoured, unflavoured tobacco, or no usual brand were compared on sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes towards a range of tobacco control measures (e.g. ban on flavouring), and on intentions regarding their smoking behaviour following the ban on flavoured tobacco. Data were analysed in SPSS Complex Samples Package using univariate analyses. Results: Among the respondents, 7.4% smoked menthol cigarettes and 2.9% other flavoured tobacco, but large differences existed between countries (e.g. 0.4% smokers smoked menthol cigarettes in Spain vs 12.4% in England). Compared to other groups, menthol cigarette smokers were younger, more likely to be female, better educated, had higher household income, and smoked fewer cigarettes (all p<0.001). A quarter of menthol smokers supported a ban on additives, compared with almost half of all other smokers (p<0.001). In case of a ban on flavourings, around a fifth of all MFC smokers intended to switch to another brand, and a third to reduce the amount they smoked or to quit smoking, but there was no consistent pattern across MFC smokers among the countries. Conclusions: The ban on flavourings introduced by the EU Tobacco Products Directive (extended to 2020 for menthols) will affect one in ten smokers in the countries surveyed, which provides an opportunity for targeting these groups with cessation programmes. However, smokers of menthol and flavoured cigarettes in the different European countries are a heterogeneous group and may need different approaches.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberA4
JournalTobacco Induced Diseases
Volume16
Issue numberSupplement 2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Dec 2018

Funding

The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, related to the current work. K. Przewoźniak reports grants and personal fees from the Polska Liga Walki z Rakiem (Polish League Against Cancer), outside the submitted work. C. I. Vardavas reports that he is the Strategic Development Editor of TID and that there are no conflicts of interest with this current work. The rest of the authors have completed and submitted an ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 681109 (C. I. V.) and the University of Waterloo (G. T. F.). Additional support was provided to the University of Waterloo by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FDN-148477). G. T. F. was supported by a Senior Investigator Grant from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. E. F. was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Government of Spain (INT16/00211 and INT17/00103), co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). The Wave 1 of the ITC 4 Country E-cigarette Project in England was supported by grant P01 CA200512-01 from the National Cancer Institute of the USA, and a Foundation Grant (118096) from the Canadian Institute of Health Research. The Wave 10 of the Netherlands Project was supported by the Dutch Cancer Foundation (KWF) (UM 2014-7210).

Keywords

  • Ban on additives
  • Cross-sectional study
  • Flavoured cigarettes
  • Menthol cigarettes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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