Perceived effectiveness of text and pictorial health warnings for smokeless tobacco packages in Navi Mumbai, India, and Dhaka, Bangladesh: findings from an experimental study

ObjectiveTo examine the perceived effectiveness of text and pictorial smokeless tobacco health warnings in India and Bangladesh, including different types of message content.MethodsAn experimental study was conducted in Navi Mumbai, India (n=1002), and Dhaka, Bangladesh (n=1081). Face-to-face interviews were conducted on tablets with adult (≥19 years) smokeless tobacco users and youth (16–18 years) users and non-users. Respondents viewed warnings depicting five health effects, within one of the four randomly assigned warning label conditions (or message themes): (1) text-only, (2) symbolic pictorial, (3) graphic pictorial or (4) personal testimonial pictorial messages.ResultsText-only warnings were perceived as less effective than all of the pictorial styles (p