Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In the UK tobacco denormalisation strategies (i.e. indoor smoking ban and display \nban), have been acknowledged as important strategies to encourage behaviour \nchange in smokers, through quitting or at least minimising it. This study examines the \nimpact of these strategies on smokers and their behaviours in retail establishments \nand shared consumption spaces. It extends the work of Festinger (1957) on \ndissonance manifestation and behaviour, and of Michie and West’s (2011) concept of \nbehaviour change interventions, through the examination of smokers as consumers. \nThe strategy of ‘denormalising’ tobacco use has become one of the cornerstones of \nthe global tobacco control movement. In the UK, tobacco denormalisation was born \nout of a need to protect non-smokers from the dangers of second-hand smoke and \ncurb increasing numbers of deaths in smokers. These policies are overseen by the \nWHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), to which the UK \nbecame a signatory in 2002. Although the UK has strict tobacco denormalisation \nstrategies and leads the way in tobacco control in Europe, there remains a dearth of \nUK-centric qualitative studies from a consumer standpoint exploring smoking \nbehaviours and the impact of tobacco denormalisation. \nAn interpretivist theoretical perspective and the phenomenology research design is \nadopted for this study, drawing on qualitative data using interviews with 25 individuals \n(current smokers, ex-smokers, and non-smokers, retailers and industry personnel), \nliving and working in and around the town of Huddersfield and the region of West \nYorkshire, as well as three separate participant observations held in a stop-smoking \nclinic in the town of Huddersfield. Data was analysed using the strategy recommended \nby Miles & Huberman (1984), aided using NVIVO 11 data analysis software to identify \nemergent themes recommended by Bazeley & Jackson (2013). \nResults of this study’s analysis of data suggest that tobacco control strategies have \noverseen behaviour change in smoking participants during purchase and \nconsumption, and whilst in shared consumption spaces but not in the way intended. \nSmoking participants continue to adopt, purchase and consume tobacco products in \nthe face of mounting social and cultural opposition. However, behaviour change is \nmanifested in ways they circumvent “barriers to purchase, consumption and use”. For \nexample, making friends with other smokers whilst standing outside to smoke, \nadopting new or alternative products such as e-cigarettes, engaging in brand switching \nand bulk buying, becoming brand knowledgeable and more informed about location of \nproducts stored in gantries, but also engaging in compensatory health behaviours to \njustify smoking continuation. The behaviour of smoking participants suggests \nobservation and rejection of tobacco control strategies occur in parallel (i.e. take place \nat the same time). Findings therefore raise questions about the ethical and practical \nextent to which tobacco denormalisation strategies influence and encourage smokers \nto change behaviours.
Author: Donna Marie Wallace-Williams
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2892708072