Since Monday, thousands of French people have been questioned about their perception of smoking. In this scientific study, Inserm will assess the impact of anti-smoking measures.
What are the perceptions and behaviors of the French towards smoking? This is the question that will be answered by the DePICT study (Description of Perceptions, Images and Behaviors linked to Tobacco) launched this Monday, August 22 by Inserm. Scheduled to last until mid-November, it will include 4,000 adults (18-64 years old) and 2,000 young people (12-17 years old).
Two years in a row, it will be carried out by telephone, in partnership with the MV2 institute. The households will be called at random by a computer, from a base of landline and mobile telephone numbers, generated to obtain a representative sample of the French population.
Teens smoke more and more
But why include such young participants? “Because smoking generally starts in adolescence and its prevention must therefore target the” very “young” “, Inserm responds in a press release. Contacted by Why actor, Maria Melchior, researcher in social epidemiology at iPLESP (1) and director of this work, says she wants to understand “why the French continue to smoke and in particular young people”.
Among this population the figures are, it is true, worrying. Several studies have shown an increase in smoking among adolescents in recent years in France, after more than ten years of sharp decline. With 38% of smokers at 16, France remains among the countries where the prevalence of smoking among young people is the highest in Europe.
Maria Melchior has one main goal. “That understanding the perceptions of smoking and the determinants of young people’s behavior in relation to tobacco make it possible to put in place effective prevention policies”. The researcher would particularly like to explore the path of increasing social inequalities vis-à-vis smoking.
Maria Melchior, researcher at Inserm: ” This may be because prevention messages are not received in the same way depending on the situation… “
Measuring the impact of the neutral package …
For this reason, she insists that, from a scientific point of view, it is important that each person selected agrees to respond. Hence the idea of this general public media coverage of Inserm …
In more detail, the researcher hopes to obtain many answers on the evolution of attitudes and behavior related to smoking, within the framework of the recent introduction of neutral tobacco packages. “We are going to ask questions about how people perceive their pack of cigarettes depending on whether it is a plain packet or a classic” marketed “packet,” she explains. The analysis of their answers will, according to her, to see if, as in Australia, the measure is effective in lowering the tobacco curve, especially among the youngest.
… and November tobacco-free ego (s)
The latter will also measure the effect of “Me (s) without tobacco” which arrives for the first time in France in November 2016. Managed by the new agency Public Health France, the idea of this operation is “to encourage smokers to quit smoking for 28 days in order to multiply their chances of quitting smoking by five,” said François Bourdillon, its director.
In England, the system has shown its favorable impact on the proportion of smokers who have attempted to quit (+ 50% between October 2012 and the average for the other months of the year, whereas October was the month for which the proportion of attempted quits was the lowest over the previous 5 years).
In this battle, England is also a good student: in 30 years, the number of smokers would have decreased by 37%. It remains to be seen if the French are able to do as well. In the end, Inserm does not hide it, “it now wants to help decision-making in the fight against smoking”, he concludes.
(1) The Pierre Louis Institute for Epidemiology and Public Health (iPLESP – Inserm unit)
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