ArticleTobacco control2007
Smoking too few cigarettes to be at risk? Smokers' perceptions of risk and risk denial, a French survey.
Article in Tobacco control, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Wearable Sensors for Monitoring of Cigarette Smoking in Free-Living: A Systematic Review.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Pooled it
- Just a Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Messages Go Down: Using Stories and Vicarious Self-Affirmation to Reduce e-Cigarette Use.Health communication · 2019Trial
- Cigarette smoking and perceived risk of cardiovascular disease in Iran.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Associations of Individual Characteristics and Socioeconomic Status With Heated Tobacco Product Harmfulness Perceptions in Japan: A Nationwide Cross-sectional Study (INFORM Study 2020).Journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Longitudinal Description and Prediction of Smoking Among Borderline Patients: An 18-Year Follow-Up Study.The Journal of clinical psychiatry · 2023Article
- Global burden of cancers attributable to tobacco smoking, 1990-2019: an ecological study.The EPMA journal · 2023Article
- How do self-exempt beliefs affect intentions to quit smoking? An exploration of the mediating role of threat appraisal and coping appraisal.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Social evaluations of scientific occupations.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Nuclear factor kappa-B contributes to cigarette smoke tolerance in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma through cysteine metabolism.Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2021Article
- Are smokers scared by COVID-19 risk? How fear and comparative optimism influence smokers' intentions to take measures to quit smoking.PloS one · 2021Article
- Smoking Status Among Patients With Newly Diagnosed Lung Cancer in Taiwan.The journal of nursing research : JNR · 2019Article
- Prevalence of beliefs about actual and mythical causes of cancer and their association with socio-demographic and health-related characteristics: Findings from a cross-sectional survey in England.European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990) · 2018Article
- Perceptions of Continued Smoking and Smoking Cessation Among Patients With Cancer.Journal of oncology practice · 2018Article
- Boy Smokers' Rationalisations for Engaging in Potentially Fatal Behaviour: In-Depth Interviews in The Netherlands.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
- Assessing the structure of the CAST (Cannabis Abuse Screening Test) in 13 European countries using multigroup analyses.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2017Article
- Varied exposure to carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reprotoxic (CMR) chemicals in occupational settings in France.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2017Article
- Larger and More Prominent Graphic Health Warnings on Plain-Packaged Tobacco Products and Avoidant Responses in Current Smokers: a Qualitative Study.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2016Article
- The predictive utility of micro indicators of concern about smoking: findings from the International Tobacco Control Four Country study.Addictive behaviors · 2014Article
- Absolute and comparative cancer risk perceptions among smokers in two cities in China.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2014Article
- Clustering of risk factors with smoking habits among adults, Sousse, Tunisia.Preventing chronic disease · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPast studies on smokers' risk perception have produced mixed results. We endorsed a new approach to assess smokers' perceptions of risk by asking them to estimate threshold values for the cancer risk associated with daily consumption of tobacco and number of smoking years. We expected that many smokers would endorse a "risk denial" attitude, with threshold estimates higher than their own smoking consumption and duration. METHODOLOGY: A French national telephone survey (n = 3820; 979 current smokers) included several questions about smoking behaviours and related beliefs.
resultsAmong current smokers, 44% considered that smoking can cause cancer only for a daily consumption higher than their own consumption, and an additional 20% considered that the cancer risk becomes high only for a smoking duration higher than their own. Most smokers also agreed with other "risk denial" statements ("smoking is not more dangerous than air pollution," "some people smoke their whole life but never get sick"). Those who considered they smoked too few cigarettes to be at risk were less likely to report personal fear of smoking related cancer.
conclusionRisk denial is quite widespread among smokers and does not simply reflect a lack of information about health risks related to tobacco. Fully informing smokers about their risks may necessitate changing the way they process information to produce beliefs and limiting their capacity to generate self exempting beliefs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.