Young people's perceptions of tobacco packaging: a comparison of EU Tobacco Products Directive & Ireland's Standardisation of Tobacco Act.

OBJECTIVES: To measure young people's perceptions of tobacco packaging according to two current pieces of legislation: The EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and Ireland's Public Health (Standardisation of Tobacco Products) Act. DESIGN: Within-subject experimental cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of secondary school students. School-based pen and paper survey. SETTING: 27 secondary schools across Ireland, randomly stratified for size, geographic location, gender, religious affiliation and school-level socioeconomic status. Data were collected between March and May 2014. PARTICIPANTS: 1378 fifth year secondary school students aged 16-17 in Ireland. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Young people's perceptions of attractiveness, health risk and smoker characteristics of packs according to EU and Irish branding and packaging guidelines. RESULTS: Packs with more branding elements were thought to be healthier than standardised packs for Silk Cut (χ(2)=158.58, p<0.001), Marlboro (χ(2)=113.65, p<0.001), and Benson and Hedges (χ(2)=137.95, p<0.001) brands. Generalized estimating equation binary regressions found that gender was a significant predictor of pack attractiveness for Silk Cut, with females being more likely to find the EU packs attractive (ß=-0.45, p=0.007). Gender was a significant predictor for females with regards to the perceived popularity of the Silk Cut brand (ß=-0.37, p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: The removal of brand identifiers, including colour, font and embossing, reduces the perceived appeal of cigarette packs for young people across all three tested brands. Packs standardised according to Irish legislation are perceived as less attractive, less healthy and smoked by less popular people than packs which conform to the EU TPD 2014 guidelines.

Electronic Cigarette Use among Irish Youth: A Cross Sectional Study of Prevalence and Associated Factors.

PURPOSE: To examine prevalence of, and factors associated with, e-cigarette use among young people aged 16-17 in Ireland. METHODS: In 2014, a representative sample of 821 young people aged 16-17 recruited from secondary schools completed a pen and paper survey on e-cigarette use, tobacco use, and socio-demographic items. FINDINGS: A total of 23.8% of respondents had used e-cigarettes at least once. Dual trial of tobacco and e-cigarettes was common with 69.5% of regular smokers and 30.4% of 'ever' smokers having tried e-cigarettes and 10.6% of current smokers using e-cigarettes regularly. 4.2% of never smokers have tried e-cigarettes. Overall, current e-cigarette use (once a month or more) was low (3.2%). Binary logistic regression conducted through generalized estimating equations (GEE) determined that controlling for other variables, current tobacco use and 'ever' tobacco use predicted ever e-cigarette use. Gender and school-level socioeconomic status were also independent predictors of ever e-cigarette use. Gender stood as the only predictor of on-going e-cigarette use, with males being more likely to regularly use e-cigarettes at least once a month. CONCLUSIONS: E-cigarette use among 16-17 year olds in Ireland is of note, with nearly a quarter of students having tried them. Concurrent or experimental use of e-cigarettes and tobacco is more common than sole use, while a small number have tried e-cigarettes without having tried tobacco.