Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Apr 22;11(4):e0153027.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153027. eCollection 2016.

Health Warnings on Alcoholic Beverages: Perceptions of the Health Risks and Intentions towards Alcohol Consumption

Sophie Wigg  1 , Lorenzo D Stafford  1
Affiliations

Health Warnings on Alcoholic Beverages: Perceptions of the Health Risks and Intentions towards Alcohol Consumption

Sophie Wigg et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objectives: Research has demonstrated that packaging which includes pictorial health warnings are more effective in altering smokers' perceptions and intentions as well as changing smoking behaviours compared to text-only health warnings. However, very few studies have investigated the effectiveness of health warnings on alcoholic beverages.

Methods: Participants (N = 60) viewed alcoholic beverages presenting one of three health warnings (No health warning, Text-only, Pictorial) and then responded to questions relating to level of fear arousal and their perceptions toward alcohol use.

Results: We found that pictorial health warnings were associated with significantly higher fear arousal, increased perceptions of the health risks of consuming alcohol as well as greater intentions to reduce and quit alcohol consumption compared to the control.

Conclusions: These novel findings suggest pictorial health warnings on alcoholic beverages may be an important way of making the public aware of the health risks of alcohol consumption.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Mean scores of intentions to quit alcohol consumption as a function of health warning.
Error bars represent standard errors of the mean.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Mean scores of intentions to reduce alcohol consumption as a function of health warning.
Error bars represent standard errors of the mean.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. Global status report on alcohol and health 2014. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs349/en/.
    1. NHS. Alcohol misuse 2013. Available from: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Alcohol-misuse/Pages/Introduction.aspx.
    1. U.K. Parliament Health Select Committee Inquiry into the Government’s Alcohol Strategy 2012. Available from: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmhealth/132/....
    1. U.K. Government’s Alcohol Strategy. 2012.
    1. Faculty of Public Health. Alcohol & Public Health 2008. Available from: http://www.fph.org.uk/uploads/ps_alcohol.pdf

LinkOut - more resources