Removing the marketing power of cigarettes: A multi-method study aimed at protecting the health of adolescents in Latin America

烟草公司在香烟中使用香料，以使其味道更好。这些味道可能会鼓励年轻人尝试吸烟、开始吸烟或继续吸烟。香料卷烟在世界大部分地区都有销售，但在拉丁美洲很受欢迎。加香卷烟在许多拉美国家的流行是由于烟草行业的创新。烟草公司推出了在滤嘴中有胶囊的香烟，通过挤压滤嘴，可以破裂，释放出一种改变味道的液体。一些香烟棒在滤嘴中有多达三种不同口味的胶囊，允许在一支香烟中有多种口味选择。关于香料“胶囊”香烟的研究很少，尽管它们似乎对年轻人很有吸引力，而且是开始吸烟或继续吸烟的潜在途径。它们是对青少年健康的严重威胁。对于烟草公司来说，香烟棒是一种越来越重要的方式来推广他们的产品，包括香料香烟。因此，研究人员最近开始探索降低香烟棒吸引力的方法，例如在香烟棒上加入健康信息，使其成为不吸引人的颜色，或者两者兼而有之。这些被称为“劝阻”香烟。我们的项目有两个目标。首先是了解烟草公司如何在拉丁美洲销售香料卷烟，以及香料卷烟对青少年吸烟态度、意图和行为的影响。第二个问题是了解劝阻香烟是否可以阻止青少年吸烟。我们将在拉丁美洲的四个香料香烟非常流行的国家(阿根廷、危地马拉、墨西哥和秘鲁)进行三项研究。每项研究将在每个国家的四个不同城镇进行。在第一项研究中，我们将访问销售烟草的零售商，以记录香料香烟是否以及如何在零售点通过香烟包装和香烟棒进行促销，以及是否销售单一香烟。第二项研究将涉及与青少年吸烟者和非吸烟者的小组讨论，询问他们对香料香烟和劝阻香烟的看法。我们将向参与者展示在第一项研究中收集的零售营销和香烟包装和香烟棒的例子，以帮助讨论。第三项研究还将探索青少年如何看待香料香烟和劝阻香烟，这一次是使用学校的问卷，学生们将被要求在上课时间完成这些问卷。这项研究将根据青少年在第二项研究中对香料香烟和劝阻香烟的看法，并从青少年的意见中提出问题，使这些问题易于理解和有意义。研究团队在烟草营销和烟草控制政策方面拥有丰富的专业知识，并具有与政策制定者合作的丰富经验。我们将邀请我们的项目合作伙伴，包括每个国家的卫生部和区域网络，帮助我们解释结果，完善沟通计划，并就如何广泛提供结果提出建议。研究结果将通过研究出版物、在会议上和政策制定者的陈述以及为政策和倡导组织举行的简报会来传达。我们将在每个国家举行利益攸关方会议和网络研讨会，向政策制定者和公众展示调查结果。我们还将有一个只关注该项目的网站。就这项研究的潜在好处而言，这些发现将让每个国家、拉丁美洲和全球的政策制定者和其他利益相关者了解香料香烟是如何影响青少年吸烟的，从而了解禁止这些香烟的潜在好处，以及劝阻香烟是否有助于让年轻人戒烟。

Tobacco companies use flavours in cigarettes to make them taste better. These flavours may encourage young people to try smoking, start to smoke or continue to smoke. Flavoured cigarettes are sold across most of the world, but are very popular in Latin America. The popularity of flavoured cigarettes in many Latin American countries is due to a tobacco industry innovation. Tobacco companies introduced cigarettes that have capsules in the filter that can be burst, by squeezing the filter, to release a liquid that changes the flavour. Some cigarette sticks have as many as three different flavoured capsules in the filter, allowing several flavour options in a single cigarette. There has been little research on flavour 'capsule' cigarettes, even though they appear to appeal to young people and so are a potential route into starting smoking or continuing to smoke. They are a serious threat to adolescent health. The cigarette stick is an increasingly important way for tobacco companies to promote their products, including flavoured cigarettes. Therefore, researchers have recently started to explore ways of making the cigarette stick less appealing, for example by including health messaging on the stick, making it an unappealing colour, or a combination of both. These are called 'dissuasive' cigarettes.Our project has two objectives. The first is to understand how tobacco companies market flavoured cigarettes in Latin America and the impact that flavoured cigarettes have on the smoking attitudes, intentions and behaviours of adolescents. The second is to understand whether dissuasive cigarettes may deter adolescents from smoking. We will conduct three studies in four countries in Latin America where flavoured cigarettes are extremely popular (Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru). Each study will be carried out in four different towns and cities in each country. For the first study we will visit retailers who sell tobacco to record if, and how, flavoured cigarettes are being promoted in retail outlets and via the cigarette pack and cigarette stick, and whether single cigarettes are sold. The second study will involve discussions with small groups of adolescent smokers and non-smokers to ask what they think about flavoured cigarettes and dissuasive cigarettes. We will show participants examples of the retail marketing and cigarette packs and sticks collected in the first study to help with the discussion. The third study will also explore how adolescents view flavoured cigarettes and dissuasive cigarettes, this time using questionnaires in schools that pupils will be asked to complete during class time. This study will be informed by what adolescents say about flavoured and dissuasive cigarettes in the second study, and also with input from adolescents to develop questions so that they are easy to understand and meaningful.The research team has significant expertise on tobacco marketing and tobacco control policy, and considerable experience of working with policy makers. We will invite our project partners, including the Ministries of Health in each country and regional networks, to help us interpret the results, refine a communication plan and advise on how to make the results widely available. The findings will be communicated through research publications, presentations at conferences and to policy makers, and briefings for policy and advocacy organisations. We will hold stakeholder meetings in each country, and webinars, to present the findings to policy makers and the public. We will also have a website that focuses only on the project.In terms of potential benefits of the research, the findings will allow policy makers and other stakeholders in each country, across Latin America, and globally, to understand how flavoured cigarettes are influencing adolescent smoking, and therefore the potential benefits of banning these, and whether dissuasive cigarettes could help put young people off smoking.