Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Sep 2016
Interpersonal communication about pictorial health warnings on cigarette packages: Policy-related influences and relationships with smoking cessation attempts.
This study evaluated the relationship between interpersonal communication about cigarette health warning labels (HWLs), psychological responses to HWLs, and smoking cessation attempts. Data were analyzed from online consumer panels of adult smokers in Australia, Canada and Mexico, during implementation of new pictorial health warning labels (HWLs) on cigarette packs. Approximately 1000 adult smokers were surveyed in each country every four months (September 2012, January 2013, May 2013, September 2013, January 2014). ⋯ No interaction between talk and cognitive reactions to HWLs were found. These results suggest that interpersonal communication about HWLs influences smoking cessation attempts independent of other established predictors of smoking cessation, including cessation-related HWL responses. Future research should determine ways to catalyze interpersonal communication about HWLs and thereby potentiate HWL effects.
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Social science & medicine · Sep 2016
Do racial inequities in infant mortality correspond to variations in societal conditions? A study of state-level income inequality in the U.S., 1992-2007.
Prior studies have examined the association between income inequality and overall infant mortality rates (IMR). We examine effects of income inequality on racial inequities in IMR over the period 1992-2007 in the U.S. ⋯ Future studies should consider lagged effects of income inequality on IMR and other health outcomes, and should examine other potential societal conditions that may account for state-level variations in racial IMR inequities.