With UK MPs calling for a consultation on raising the age for the sale of cigarettes to 21 from 18, Dr Rowena Merritt from the University’s Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS) comments on how more understanding into smoking behaviour is required alongside any interventions. She said:
‘Increasing the age for the sale of cigarettes could be a positive move in the fight against the ‘tobacco epidemic’. However, to tackle an issue such as tobacco usage, all levers of change need to be used, not just control ones. We also need to understand why people smoke and the benefits they gain from smoking. Of course, there are no health benefits attached to smoking – quite the opposite. But smokers will gain benefits from their habit, whether they are perceived or actual benefits – such as a feeling of belonging, sophistication, or reduced stress. Therefore, if you want to achieve sustainable behaviour change, you need to understand these benefits gained, and try and give them the same or greater benefits in another (and healthier) way.
‘An example of where this has been successfully done is the Truth campaign from the USA. The campaign focused on stopping young people smoking. By trying to understand why young people smoke and the benefits they gain from it, they found that smoking was a tool of rebellion. It was about showing the adults in their lives that they were in control. Therefore, the Truth campaign gave young people a platform to rebel, but instead of rebelling through smoking, they empowered young people to rebel against the tobacco industry which tries to get people to start smoking from a young age.
‘By understanding the reason why and benefits gained, we can develop more comprehensive programmes and not simply rely on control and legislative interventions. And if young people use tobacco as a form of rebellion in the UK, could increasing the age for the sale of cigarettes make the behaviour even more attractive to them? I do not have the answer to this, but I do know we need to LISTEN. Listen to smokers and potential smokers– the people whose behaviour we want to change. Whatever people do, they will have their reasons. These reasons might not be rational, but then we are driven by emotion and our decisions and actions are not always rational.’
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Dr Rowena Merritt is a Research Fellow at the University of Kent’s Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS) and an expert in critical social marketing for public health. Her research interests are focused on public health priority areas including: obesity, breastfeeding, cancer, HIV/STI prevention, mental health, alcohol and drug misuse and smoking.
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