Anti-smoking study on graphic response

Rose Scott could have been working in a cafe this summer, but instead, as a recipient of one of the new summer scholarships, she is researching the effectiveness of warnings on cigarette packets.

She is one of 400 Otago students who have received the scholarships, which are funded equally by the Government and universities.

Students receive $5000 for 10 weeks' work.

Prof Janet Hoek, who has five students on the programme, said the benefits of the programme were twofold: it gave students a real taste of research and also furthered the work researchers were doing.

"It's absolutely brilliant. The students are great, a real pleasure to work with."

Her work was in marketing and public policy and the students were working on projects which were an extension of her research in the areas of defective advertising, menu labelling and tobacco advertising.

Prof Hoek has a grant from the Health Research Council to investigate how young people react to graphic health warnings on cigarette packets.

Miss Scott (21), who was about to embark on an honours year in marketing, said it was an easy choice to do the research, as she was interested and she could boost her research skills.

She interviews women aged 18-24 about reactions to health warnings on cigarette packets and then shows them new images based on negative social and physical risks of smoking.

"The feedback I've had so far is that social and physical images have more of an effect," she said.

Young women seemed more concerned about appearance and did not consider themselves old enough to have to worry about the issues depicted on cigarette packets, she said.

She would write up her findings to be included in Prof Hoek's research on the topic.

rebecca.fox@odt.co.nz