Unprompted awareness of illness and damage, level of agreement with opinion statements about smoking and health and campaign related attitudes among smoker and recent quitter respondents
| Benchmark May 1997 (n=1192) | Follow up 1 Nov 1997 (n=2981) | Follow up 2 Nov 1998 (n=1646) | Follow up 3 Nov 1999 (n=1611) | Follow up 4 Nov 2000 (n=1675) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Benchmark vs follow up 1, p <0.001. | |||||
| †Follow up 3 v FU4, p <0.001. | |||||
| ‡Follow up 1 v follow up 2, p <0.001. | |||||
| §Benchmark to follow up 4, linear increase, p < 0.001. | |||||
| ¶Follow up 4 v follow up 1, follow up 2, follow up 3, p <0.01. | |||||
| **Follow up 1 to follow up 4, ns. | |||||
| ††Follow up 4 v follow up 2, follow up 3, p <0.001. | |||||
| ‡‡Follow up 3 v follow up 4, p=0.004. | |||||
| Unprompted awareness | |||||
| Any artery illness/damage | 26% | 32%* | 30% | 32% | 26%† |
| Any lung illness/damage | 80% | 79% | 79% | 80% | 80% |
| Genetic/DNA damage | 1% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 1% |
| Any brain disease | 4% | 3% | 12%‡ | 8% | 8% |
| Eyesight damage | - | - | - | <1% | 2% |
| Unprompted awareness of illness and damage caused by smoking | |||||
| The dangers of smoking have been exaggerated (% disagree) | 59% | 64%* | 61% | 64% | 68%§ |
| Smoking can’t be all that bad because many people smoke all their lives and live to a ripe old age (% disagree) | 59% | 61% | 60% | 62% | 66%¶ |
| Smoking the occasional cigarette doesn’t cause any damage to your health (% disagree) | 50% | 57%* | 55% | 57% | 60%§ |
| Campaign-related attitudes | |||||
| Which is nearest to the truth? “Every cigarette is doing you damage” v “You have to smoke for several years”: (% Every cigarette is doing you damage) | 75% | 82%* | 81% | 79% | 81%** |
| Smoking blocks up arteries with fatty deposits (% true) | 54% | 83%* | 76% | 80% | 80%** |
| Smoking causes damage to the genes in lung cells (% true) | 67% | 78%* | 70% | 73% | 70% |
| Smoking causes decay in the lungs (% true) | 93% | 95% | 94% | 95% | 95% |
| Smoking causes strokes (% true) | NA | NA | 77% | 77% | 82%†† |
| Smoking causes blood clots in the brain (% true) | NA | NA | 71% | 68% | 72%‡‡ |
| Smoking causes eye damage (% true) | NA | NA | NA | NA | 50% |