ArticlePloS one2023
Associations between smokers' knowledge of causes of smoking harm and related beliefs and behaviors: Findings from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tobacco package health warnings about product manipulations: an experimental study among Australian adults who smoke.Health promotion international · 2025Trial
- Early insights from a national scheme providing vaping devices for smoking cessation: A preliminary evaluation to inform future return-on-investment modelling in England.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Investigating the Appeal of Nicotine Pouch Packaging, Flavour, and Nicotine Descriptors Among Adults in the UK: An Online Experiment.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2026Article
- Residential segregation, housing cost, and smoking behaviors in Black Americans.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- A qualitative exploration of cigar smoking beliefs by type among U.S. susceptible Black young adults.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Variation in Relative Risk Perceptions and Tobacco Use by Race and Socioeconomic Status Among Older Adults Who Smoke: Evidence From the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Observational
- Harm perceptions across vaping product features: An on-line cross-sectional survey of adults who smoke and/or vape in the United Kingdom.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- Challenges in legitimizing further measures against smoking in jurisdictions with robust infrastructure for tobacco control: how far can the authorities allow themselves to go?Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Future nicotine use preferences of current cigarette smokers: Findings from the 2020 International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey.Drug and alcohol review · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMost smokers know that smoking is harmful to health, but less is known about their understanding of what causes the harms. The primary aim was to examine smokers' perceptions of the relative contributions to smoking-related morbidity from combustion products, nicotine, other substances present in unburned tobacco, and additives. A secondary aim was to evaluate the association of these perceptions with nicotine vaping product use intentions, and quitting motivation/intentions.
methodsParticipants were current smokers and recent ex-smokers from Australia, Canada, England and the United States (N = 12,904, including 8511 daily smokers), surveyed in the 2018 International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey. Respondents reported on how much they thought combustion products, nicotine, chemicals in the tobacco and additives in cigarettes contribute to smoking-related morbidity (none/very little; some but less than half; around half; more than half; all or nearly all of it; don't know).
resultsOverall, 4% of participants provided estimates for all four component causes that fell within the ranges classified correct, with younger respondents and those from England most likely to be correct. Respondents who rated combustion as clearly more important than nicotine in causing harm (25%) were the least likely to be smoking daily and more likely to have quit and/or to be vaping. Among daily smokers, all four cause estimates were independently related to overall health worry and extent of wanting to quit, but the relative rating of combustion compared to nicotine did not add to prediction. Those who answered 'don't know' to the sources of harm questions and those suggesting very little harm were consistently least interested in quitting.
conclusionsMost smokers' knowledge of specific causes of harm is currently inadequate and could impact their informed decision-making ability.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.