The effectivity of pictorial health warning to motivate smoking cessation in rural area: A study from Losari village, Indonesia

Smoking is a significant health problem among Indonesian adolescents and adults. The Indonesian government had issued several policies to alleviate this problem, including placement of pictorial health warning (PHW) on cigarette package. There had been several evaluation studies regarding the effectivity of PHW in urban areas but none in rural areas. This study aims to evaluate the effectivity of PHW in motivating smoking cessation in a rural area in Indonesia.

This was a descriptive cross‑sectional study conducted in August 2017 in Losari village, Indonesia. Respondents of this study were villagers aged 18–60 years who were active smokers and purchased cigarette with PHW on the package. The research instruments for this study were questionnaire and printout pictures of each PHW approved by the Indonesian government.

There were 94 respondents recruited in this study. Among them, only 26 (27.7%) stated that PHW motivated them to stop smoking. From the five figures of PHW, a picture of lung cancer was the most effective PHW to motivate smoking cessation. Eighty‑one of 94 respondents affirm that there are other factors besides PHW that might motivate them to stop smoking. Most of them agreed that an increase in cigarette price will force them to stop smoking.

Current PHW used on cigarette package might be ineffective in motivating smoking cessation at Losari village. Further study with larger samples needs to be done to confirm this finding