Table 4 Comparison of awareness of tobacco marketing activities, by country
China (%) (n = 4763)Thailand (%) (n = 2000)Australia (%) (n = 1766)USA (%) (n = 1779)
Salience: noticed things that encourage smoking in last 6 months (At least once in a while)‡40.320.218.935.5
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.33 (0.29 to 0.38)***0.33 (0.28 to 0.39)***0.74 (0.65 to 0.85)***
Noticed tobacco advertisements in any of the five media¶58.914.540.289.6
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.11 (0.09 to 0.13)***0.49 (0.43 to 0.56)***6.73 (5.57 to 8.13)***
    Mean (SEM) number of venues noticed tobacco adverts§1.34 (0.02)0.22 (0.02)0.60 (0.02)1.90 (0.03)
Noticed tobacco advertisements in stores (yes)29.23.633.084.9
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.09 (0.07 to 0.11)***1.18(1.02 to 1.37)*15.07 (12.69 to 17.90)***
    Noticed sports event sponsorship (yes)26.03.521.622.1
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.13 (0.09 to 0.16)***1.09 (0.93 to 1.28)1.11(0.96 to 1.29)
    Noticed arts event sponsorship (yes)8.40.41.99.3
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.04 (0.02 to 0.09)***0.26(0.18 to 0.38)***1.30(1.04 to 1.64)*
Noticed any type of sponsorship27.93.722.126.6
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.12 (0.09 to 0.15)***1.01(0.86 to 1.18)1.27 (1.10 to 1.48)**
Noticed special price offers for cigarettes (yes)12.92.523.071.4
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.17 (0.12 to 0.22)***1.74 (1.47 to 2.07)***15.61 (13.35 to 18.27)***
Noticed any other form of promotion†† (excluding special price offers)36.69.531.082.0
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.18 (0.15 to 0.21)***0.74 (0.64 to 0.86)***8.67 (7.38 to 10.19)***
Total noticing tobacco marketing in any channel73.422.460.395.3
    Adjusted OR (95% CI)Ref0.10 (0.09 to 0.12)***0.63 (0.54 to 0.73)***9.32 (7.19 to 12.07)***
Mean (SEM) overall number of channels of tobacco marketing§2.38 (0.03)0.38 (0.02)1.22 (0.04)3.92 (0.05)
  • All odds ratios (ORs) are adjusted for age, sex, education and income.

  • *Significant at p<0.05; **significant at p<0.01; ***significant at p<0.001; ‡this includes “very often”, “often” and “sometimes/once in a while”; ¶these five media were television, radio, posters/billboards, newspaper/magazines and stores (posters/billboards was a composite variable in Australia and the US); §significant country difference at p<0.001 based on Kruskal–Wallis Test; ††these forms include free samples of cigarettes, gifts/discounts on other products, clothing with cigarettes brand name and competitions linked to cigarettes.

  • Ref, reference value.