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Filippidis FT, Driezen P, Kyriakos CN, Katsaounou P, Petroulia I, Girvalaki C, Fu M, Fernández E, Mons U, Trofor AC, Demjén T, Przewoźniak K, Zatoński WA, Fong GT, Tountas Y, Vardavas CI. Transitions from and to roll-your-own tobacco, perceptions and health beliefs among smokers: findings from the EUREST-PLUS ITC Europe Surveys. Eur J Public Health 2020; 30:iii18-iii25. [PMID: 32267933 PMCID: PMC7526787 DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckz214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The prevalence of roll-your-own tobacco (RYO) in Europe has been increasing. The aim of this study was to investigate transitions between factory-made (FM) cigarettes and RYO in a longitudinal sample of European smokers, and their perceptions of relative harmfulness and knowledge of health effects. METHODS We used data collected from the EUREST-PLUS ITC 6 European Country (6E) Surveys in 2016 (n = 6011 smokers) and in 2018 (n = 6027) in Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Spain. A total of 3195 cohort respondents were interviewed in both years. Use of RYO and FM, knowledge of health effects of smoking as well as perceptions about RYO were assessed. We used logistic regression models to explore sociodemographic correlates of transitions from one product to the other, of perceptions and knowledge related to smoking health effects. RESULTS Approximately 7.4% of exclusive FM smokers transitioned to RYO and 29.5% of exclusive RYO smokers transitioned to FM cigarettes from 2016 to 2018. RYO use in 2018 was more frequent among smokers of low education and income, but none of these factors were associated with transitions. Most RYO smokers perceived RYO as cheaper than FM and 21.7% of them considered RYO to be less harmful than FM. Knowledge of the health effects of smoking was not associated with type of product smoked. CONCLUSIONS RYO is popular among European smokers; its lower cost seems to be a major factor for RYO users; reasons for transitions to and from RYO are less clear and need to be further investigated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filippos T Filippidis
- Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College, London, UK
- Center for Health Services Research, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Pete Driezen
- Department of Psychology and School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
| | - Christina N Kyriakos
- European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention, Brussels, Belgium
- Laboratory of Toxicology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
| | - Paraskevi Katsaounou
- Center for Health Services Research, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- First ICU Evaggelismos Hospital Athens, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Ioanna Petroulia
- Center for Health Services Research, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Charis Girvalaki
- Laboratory of Toxicology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
| | - Marcela Fu
- Tobacco Control Unit, Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Catalonia
- Tobacco Control Research Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia
- School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bellvitge Campus, Universitat de Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia
- Consortium for Biomedical Research in Respiratory Diseases (CIBER of Respiratory Diseases, CIBERES), Madrid, Spain
| | - Esteve Fernández
- Tobacco Control Unit, Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Catalonia
- Tobacco Control Research Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia
- School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bellvitge Campus, Universitat de Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia
- Consortium for Biomedical Research in Respiratory Diseases (CIBER of Respiratory Diseases, CIBERES), Madrid, Spain
| | - Ute Mons
- Cancer Prevention Unit and WHO Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Antigona C Trofor
- University of Medicine and Pharmacy ‘Grigore T. Popa’ Iasi, Iasi, Romania
- Aer Pur Romania, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Tibor Demjén
- Smoking or Health Hungarian Foundation, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Krzysztof Przewoźniak
- Health Promotion Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland
- Collegium Civitas, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Witold A Zatoński
- Health Promotion Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
- European Observatory of Health Inequalities, President Stanisław Wojciechowski State University of Applied Sciences, Kalisz, Poland
| | - Geoffrey T Fong
- Department of Psychology and School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
- Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Canada
| | - Yannis Tountas
- Center for Health Services Research, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Constantine I Vardavas
- European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention, Brussels, Belgium
- Laboratory of Toxicology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
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