Determination the effects of the written and combined warning labels on the cigarette packages on persons

Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of written and combined warning labels on the cigarette packages. Method: The data of the study were collected from 200 randomly selected volunteers(118 females, 82 males) in Izmir, between 2014 to 2016. Volunteers are 18-83 years old. The first 16 questions in the questionnaire by removing the word "cigarette" from the written warning signs form the pretest. There are 9 questions including socio-demographic information (age, gender, education, smoking frequency/amount, etc.)at the end of the pretest. There are 14 questions in the questionnaire including written and combined warning signs, 2 written warnings in each cigarette packages and finally a question assessing the effectiveness of written and combined warning signs in the posttest. Participants were asked to rate the fear item as social (fearful, scared, unconfortable) and physical (nervous, tense, nauseated) and likert type (1 - never agree - 7 too much). Findings: Internal consistency reliability was applied to check whether the generated questionnaires support the purpose of the research. Cronbach alpha value of 16 likert type questions on pretest was 0.980 and the posttest cronbach alpha value 0.984. It showed a reliable correlation distribution. Significant differences are seen in the evaluation of social fear and physical fear in the study and pretest and posttest. About smoking, participants didn't find scary the written and combined warning labels on the cigarette packages, but they found more scary the warning labels without the word "cigarette". There was no significant difference the level of social fear who had a health problem because of smoking and people had no health problems because of smoking. created by united stimuli among those living with smoking related health problems. On the other hand, it has been concluded that being sick is a factor that affects physical fear while smoking. Results: Considering the result of this study, the combined warning labels on cigarette packages causes physical fear levels on people who have health problems about smoking, it is possible to revise the combined warning labels on the cigarette packages by changing the physical fear levels of the person increasing the visual sense. Key words: Fear; fear appeal; combined warning labels, cigarette packages